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Courtesy Black Fox Magazine 

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RED BEN 

the fox of Oak Ridge 

by 
Joseph Wharton Lippincott 

Author of BUN— a wild rabbit 




Illustrations by the author 



THE PENN PUBLISHING 

COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 

1919 






COPYRIGHT 
19 19 BY 

THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 




NOV I0i9l9 



RED BEN— THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 






(0)Ci.A5356(i4 <^ 



To 

a true lover of nature 
— my father 



INTRODUCTION 

There is reason for the fox being 
termed the shrewdest of wild creatures. 
Unlike the deer and other vegetarians 
whose dinners often grow under their 
noses, he rarely gets a meal without out- 
witting other animals. He lacks the 
climbing ability of the opossum, the 
sharp claws of the lynx, the protective 
odor of the skunk, the diving powers of 
the otter — he is indeed just a little wild 
dog, a wonderfully bright, hardworking 
little animal whose cunning alone can 
lead him from his enemies and keep 
away the pangs of hunger. 

He has been so persistently hunted 
by man that he is almost untameable; 

ix 



INTRODUCTION 

but as far as he dares to be, he is friendly 
under ordinary circumstances and fond 
of wandering around man's dwellings. 
Chicken stealing is charged against him; 
but after all he holds the same position 
in the animal world that the wise old 
crow does among the birds — his good 
deeds and his crimes nearly balance. 
In "Bun, a Wild Rabbit," the fox ap- 
peared as one of many woods creatures 
encountered by that doughty cotton- 
tail; but, to do him justice, a separate 
volume was required. 

Foxes are much more plentiful than 
generally supposed. It is almost safe 
to say that wherever there are woods 
there are foxes, yet so wonderfully 
clever are they that few are seen. 
Whoever can distinguish their tracks 
from those of other animals is usuallv 



INTRODUCTION 

not disposed to tell of the discovery of 
fox ''sign/' The friend of the fox 
fears the fox's enemy; the trapper fears 
a competitor; and so the wily creature 
weaves his trail endlessly about the 
country side, unwatched except by the 
very few 'Vho know." 

Imagination must play a part in mak- 
ing the story of a wild animal complete, 
especially that of such an intensely shy 
and crafty creature as a fox; but noth- 
ing is included here which does not fall 
within the actual powers of the swift 
and wily red fox of today. Indeed 
there are numbers of them very much 
like Red Ben. Parts of his story are 
written in the snows of many wood- 
lands besides Oak Ridge, and adven- 
tures such as his are still happening in 
the quiet of moonlit nights. 

xi 



INTRODUCTION 

As fast as man thinks out new 
methods of destruction, the fox finds 
fresh tricks through which to escape. 
And may he ever escape I For when 
the edges of our old fields no longer bear 
the imprint of his tireless feet, when the 
woodlands that delighted his wild little 
heart have been usurped by the tame 
dog and the tame cat, then indeed will 
have departed half their charm, half the 
thrill of winter walks. 

J. W. G. 

Bethayres, Pa. 



xu 



Contents 



CHAPTER 

I. 


The Coming of the Red Fox 


PAGE 
13 


II. 


The Den 


20 


III. 
IV. 


Learning to Hunt 
Other Woodsfolk 


35 
45 


V. 

VI. 

VII. 


Gray Fox 

A Long Chase 

Red Ben Is Alone 


56 
67 

75 


VIII. 


The Woods Awake 


83 


IX. 
X. 

XI. 


Studying the Enemy 
Jim Crow's Signal 
How Others Hunt 


93 

lOI 

no 


XII. 


Ben's Hundred Dollar Fox 


121 


XIII. 


Red Ben Travels 


130 


XIV. 


Blackie 


138 


XV. 


Freedom Is Sweet 


153 


XVI. 


The Road to the Sea 


162 


XVII. 


The Other Fox 


172 


XVIII. 


Home Again 


183 



Illustrations 



**Blackie instantly stopped'' Frontispiece'' 



PAGE 



Fox track i8 

*'A gray squirrel was watching her'' 21^^ 

'^He became indignant" 39 

Coon tracks 40^ 

'^Flying Squirrel, one of the very nicest of 

the woodsfolk" 52^" 

'^Gray Fox was waiting to trap him" 61"^ 

Red Ben 63^- 

Red Ben's Mother 72 

The Mole 85-^' 

Deer Mouse 86 ^ 

Shrew 86 

*' 'Possum fell over backwards" 90 

*'They sat on their tails and held hands" 1 13 

'^Muskrat was busy pulling up grass" 115 
*^A turkey buzzard had been circling over 

him" 133 
'^They tore at each other through the 

wire" 140 
**She stood on the threshold of the pen" 154 
**Two coons who were having a loud al- 
tercation" 163''^ 
'Possum tracks 166 
''Holding to a limb with all four feet" 185 



RED BEN, 

The Fox of Oak Ridge 

CHAPTER I 

THE COMING OF THE RED FOX 

IN the State of New Jersey there are 
still thousands of acres of low-lying 
woodlands, called pine barrens, where 
man has done little except chop down a 
few trees. Slowly but surely, however, 
the farmers are each year pushing their 
clearings deeper into this section, grad- 
ually overcoming the last barriers which 
Nature sets up to protect her own. 

Ben Slown was one of these farmers. 
When the forest had been cut, he built 

13 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

a square house and a square barn. 
He planted straight-rowed orchards, he 
fenced in square, flat fields. He suc- 
ceeded so well in stamping out all the 
natural loveliness that other practical 
farmers came there to start practical 
farms like his. 

Soon there was a village; but Ben 
Slown's square fields and the edge of the 
wild, interesting .Pine Barrens were 
never separated, because no plow could 
conquer Oak Ridge and Cranberry 
Swamp. 

The Ridge was a long mound covered 
with laurel, pines and white oaks. 
Cranberry Swamp, on the other hand, 
was low, wet ground which bore a nearly 
impenetrable mass of greenery, largely 
made up of tall cedars, holly bushes and 
cat briars. Through the swamp flowed 

14 



THE COMING OF THE RED FOX 

a little creek in whose deep eddies green 
waterweeds swung with the current^ giv- 
ing glimpses now and then of turtles and 
slender, watchful pike. 

When Ben Slown first planned to 
come to the Pine Barrens, his friends 
gloomily shook their heads. 

''The foxes and other varmints will 
drive you out/' they warned. ''You 
won't be able to raise a chicken. The 
coons and crows will eat your corn. 
The woodchucks will destroy your 
vegetables. There are critters enough 
in the Barrens to keep you from being 
lonely, but they won't be the kind of 
neighbors you want." 

"You just watch me," boasted the 
farmer, 'Til fix the varmints." 

He was no sooner settled in his new 
place than he began to put traps and 

15 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

poison around the cleared ground. All 
the little creatures that still lived there, 
and the others which came out of the 
woods at night to marvel at the strange 
new things to be seen — mice, snakes, 
birds, rabbits, mink, muskrats, wood- 
chucks, coons, possums, skunks, foxes, 
deer and a lot of others — all suffered 
the same ill-treatment. But most of 
all he feared and hated the foxes, for 
they were clever enough to give him a 
little trouble. One after another was 
destroyed, however, and the farmer was 
having everything his own way when 
all at once there was a newcomer on the 
Ridge. 

This was a red fox, a beautiful 
creature several inches taller than any 
of the gray foxes that lived in the Bar- 
rens. She found the farmer's poisoned 

i6 



THE COMING OF THE RED FOX 

baits, but instead of taking them she 
took a chicken, and that right before 
his face. 

This was the first fov/1 a fox had 
taken from Ben Slown, and therefore he 
complained all the more loudly; so 
loudly indeed that the neighbors began 
to think the destruction of the red fox 
the only thing that interested him. In- 
stead of asking about his health, who- 
ever met him would say, ''Well, Ben, 
have you caught that pesky fox yet"?" or 
perhaps, ''Say, Ben, that old red fox of 
yours is bothering me now. Why don't 
you keep her at home?'' 

Ben would mutter something, then 
pass on, his brows puckered from worry- 
ing over how to get rid of her. He 
might have worried far more had he 
known that in a burrow near the south 

17 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

end of Oak Ridge the red fox had four 
fine little fox pups. 

Weeks went by, and still the fox and 

her tracks were seen occasionally, and 

I I still the farmer worried over 

s% %^ that chicken he had lost. 

^ % Then, one fine day, when the 

^w* mice seemed scarce and the 

^ * pups were very hungry, the fox 

Mm^ dashed among the hens and 

§ § took away another, this time a 

^ big white one. 

Fox Track. jj^^ ^ ^^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^ -^ ^^ 

uproar. Chickens cackled and rushed 
about, cows mooed, sheepdogs barked, 
and Ben Slown, snatching his rifle from 
the rack, shot twice at the fox before she 
reached the woods, two fields away. 

He was too much excited to aim well; 
the bullets went wild and the fox went 

i8 



THE COMING OF THE RED FOX 

on. The farmer, however, would not 
believe he had made a clean miss. Out 
to the fields he ran to see if a tuft of fur 
could be found on the ground. 

He was walking around and around, 
growing more and more angry because 
where the fox had been he found only 
the white feathers of his pet hen, when 
out from the woods burst a neighboring 
farmer. 

''Ben," this man called, ''Ben, get 
your shovel, quick! I've just found the 
red fox's den I" 



19 



CHAPTER II 

THE DEN 

WHEN the fox was making her 
wild rush to the woods, with 
the white hen held high in her strong 
jaws, she was thinking more about the 
four hungry pups in the home burrow 
than about the fuss she had left behind 
in the farmyard. In the friendly 
shelter of the woods, however, she 
began to feel very uneasy about it all. 
Everything had certainly gone wrong. 
She laid down the limp body of the 
hen and looked back. Through the 
laurel and the straight trunks of the 

pines she could see the flat stretch of the 

20 




*A ^ray squirrel was watching; her' 



THE DEN 

fields she had just left. Ben Slown's 
hurrying figure was there, but too far 
back to worry her now. There were no 
dogs loose, nothing else moving except 
three crows that were circling to find out 
what had happened to arouse the 
farmer. 

Ahead of her lay Oak Ridge and the 
Swamp. What breeze there was came 
from that direction, laden with the 
smell of sweet fern. Still she felt un- 
easy. Her quick ear caught the 
scratching of claws on bark — a red 
headed woodpecker was examining a 
dead oak; that was all right. So also 
was the barking of a gray squirrel which 
was watching her from the limb of a 
pine. But why were the blue jays call- 
ing so loudly on the Ridge? Perhaps 
some enemy was near the pups. 

21 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

Quickly picking up the hen she gal- 
loped towards the Ridge in that won- 
derfully silent way known only to the 
wild things. 

She did not know that, though her 
own graceful body fitted into the woods 
like an illusive shadow, the white hen 
stood out like a beacon light. She did 
not know that on the Ridge it caught 
the eye of a friend of Ben Slown and 
held it while she circled the den and 
then called out the puppies to the feast. 
Her mother love had indeed overcome 
natural caution. 

The den was nothing more than the 
enlarged burrow of an old woodchuck, 
who, years before, had been driven from 
the fields below. To the four puppies, 
however, it was all that a home ought to 
be. Wonderful to these was its nar- 

22 



THE DEN 

row passage with the half turn at the 
end and the snug bed so far from the 
dangers of the world outside; wonder- 
ful too its collection of feathers and 
pieces of fur which told of happy feasts ; 
but best of all was the sandy, sun bathed 
entrance in which they had basked and 
played on never to be forgotten May 
mornings in their early puppyhood. 

Their father had never come to Oak 
Ridge to help the mother in feeding and 
protecting them. To her tireless en- 
ergy they owed everything. There- 
fore to her they looked for everything, 
and she had never disappointed them. 
Nor would she ever disappoint them as 
long as they needed her and there was 
breath in her faithful body, for such is 
mother love in the fox world ! 

Here Ben Slown's pet white hen 
23 



RED BExN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

found her last resting place. Into the 
mouth of the den, among the waiting 
pups, she was dropped, feathers and all, 
and down their little throats she passed, 
piece-by-piece, amid growling and 
crunching and pulling and fighting, for 
in no other way did they know how to 
show their thorough enjoyment. 

A glorious feast it was I And Vv^hen 
they were through, the mother, who had 
all this time been on guard, picked up 
for her share the bones that were left. 
She was still nosing about among the 
feathers when a man's cough, from some- 
where below in the woods, gave sud- 
den warning of danger. Down she 
crouched, motionless in a moment; and 
without need of further signal, into the 
den tumbled the frightened pups. 

The mother waited, with ears pointed 
24 



THE DEN 

to catch the slightest new sound. In 
the burrow behind her appeared a small 
head with ears cocked in the same way. 
Both heard the crack of a breaking twig. 

Now the old fox slipped into the 
bushes and cautiously circled until she 
caught the scent of Farmer Slown and 
his friend, and heard their clothes scrap- 
ing through the bushes. Amid the 
laurel she caught a glimpse of them 
sneaking along as noiselessly as they 
knew how to, the farmer in the lead, 
holding his long gun. They certainly 
looked as if they meant mischief. 

Between them and the den the 
anxious fox ran to lead them away. A 
dog would have followed her in a rush, 
but the men were so busy in ''pussy- 
footing ' that they did not see her 
pass. 

25 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

''Now/' whispered Ben's friend, 
'look for the den right above that bunch 
of bushes ahead. Careful!" 

Ben looked. First he saw a lot of 
white feathers which made him growl to 
himself; then he made out the mouth of 
the burrow, and last of all the sharp 
nose and bright eyes of the inquisitive 
pup. Ben looked at the pup and the 
pup looked back at him; neither had 
ever seen the other before, but fate had 
already decreed that they should meet 
often in the days to come. And so they 
watched each other now, until a fluffy 
feather, a beautiful white one, was 
picked up by an eddy of wind and 
whirled around and around the little 
fox's head. 

That reminded Ben of his troubles. 

He threw his rifle to his shoulder, only 

26 



THE DEN 

to find that at his first movement the 
pup had vanished in the burrow. 

''Shucks! You little varmint!" he 
muttered. ''We'll get you all right. 
Up with the shovel, John, and let's see 
dirt fly. Remember though, when we 
get the pups, that sharp faced one must 
be mine. He thinks he's smart.'' 

Friend John took off his coat and dug 
with a will, while Ben sat on the wheat 
sack they had brought along to put the 
pups in. Both became greatly excited 
at actually having the young red foxes 
in their power. After the friend had 
dug a long while he looked inquiringly 
at Ben. 

"When are you going to do a little 
digging yourself, Ben?" he asked 
suspiciously. Ben saw that the end 
was nearly reached, so took up the 

27 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

shovel with a laugh. The bag he 
stuffed well into the burrow to stop it 
up and to keep any fox from dashing 
out. 

Meanwhile the four pups were cow- 
ering against the wall of earth at the 
very end of their home. Three were in 
one corner and the inquisitive one in an- 
other, all listening to the shovel com- 
ing nearer and nearer. Every time it 
jarred on a stone, the shivers ran up and 
down their spines; but they could do 
nothing, the burrow had no outlet be- 
sides the one the men were in. 

Ben had a very healthy fear of being 

bitten; therefore the sight of the first 

little fox unnerved him completely. 

He knew that all of them were lightning 

quick, like bombshells on four legs. 

But Ben was cunning. He quickly 

28 



THE DEN 

thought out an elaborate plan of cap- 
ture. 

First of all he threw several shovels 
of earth over them, and pushed it in 
solidly so that they were buried tight. 
After that they could not move until 
Ben's big hand picked them out by the 
scruff of the neck, one at a time. 

The first poor, scared little fellow 
glared and kicked, but was somehow 
stuffed into the empty wheat sack. 
Two more followed him in the same 
way. Then the exultant farmer felt 
all around in the earth for more, and 
found none. He dug a little and felt 
around again. His hand slipped along 
the flank of the last pup, the inquisitive 
one that had crawled into a far corner 
of the den. 

Suspicious at once, Ben poked a little 

29 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

farther. Had the little fox growled or 
moved an inch, or even trembled, he 
would have been discovered. But the 
loose, cold earth was mixed with his fur 
and his body was as rigid as the side 
of the burrow. Ben's fingers at last 
moved on and the danger was past. 

''Have you really got them all?" the 
other man asked. 

''Every one!'' growled Ben, getting 
up and giving the bag a shake. "Fill 
up the hole a bit, John, so no old cow 
can break her leg in it." 

Some minutes later the men reached 
the fields with their precious bag. 
Here Ben passed it over for his friend 
to carry awhile, and the latter took his 
first peep inside. 

"Why, there are only three here!" he 
exclaimed. "I saw at least four when 

30 



THE DEN 

the old vixen carried that hen of yours 
to the den. You've certainly left one. 
Good thing we buried him. Back we'll 
have to go." 

Meanwhile, however, there was 
frantic work going on at the den. The 
mother, who during the digging had 
been anxiously running to and fro in 
cover of the bushes, crept cautiously to 
the ruined home as soon as the men had 
left. She found a great ugly hole, with 
fresh dirt on all sides, but no sign of the 
happy pups who used to welcome her. 

Around and around the lonely 
creature wandered, hunting with all her 
mother's love. At last she jumped into 
the partly filled hole and sniffed and 
dug a little and then sniffed some more 
and listened. Something there sug- 
gested to her to dig deeper. So she set 

31 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

to work in earnest, tearing up the loose 
dirt with her forepaws and pulling it 
back in a heap behind her. 

Every little while she jumped out to 
look around, then whisked back to her 
work, until at last she heard the buried 
pup sniffing and burrowing in his 
prison. Now she dug as she had never 
dug before, spurred by noisy activity of 
the little fox, who knew perfectly well 
that his mother was trying to reach him. 

Rip, rip, rip, went her claws through 
the last strip of earth, and out popped 
the head of the pup, only to be seized 
and pulled almost off his body in his 
mother's haste to get him out. She had 
heard the men coming. 

The heavy pup was almost more than 
the old fox could carry; but somehow 
she dragged him out of the hole and 

32 



THE DEN 

leaped for the bushes, pulling him along 
by the loose skin at the back of his neck. 
The sudden shouts from the surprised 
men only served to spur her on, not, as 
they hoped, to make her drop her 
burden. 

She knew the farmer had a gun. 
Bang! She was not hurt ! The bullet 
only tore up the ground behind her. 
Bang I Another shot whizzed past. 
And then her jaws slipped on the pup's 
neck and she dropped him. 

The little fox rolled over, caught his 
balance and began to run entirely on his 
own hook. His legs were a bit wabbly, 
he did not know just where to go, but 
how he did work to get away ! Into the 
bushes he went and on to more bushes; 
and then, right before him, he found his 
mother loping along, a safe, loving 

33 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

guide. His little heart beat easier 
then, but on he went, ever following 
that beautiful furry tail with the pure 
white tip. On and on and on, the two 
ran into the heart of Cranberry Swamp 
and to safety. 



34 



CHAPTER III 

LEARNING TO HUNT 

THE pup went to sleep beside his. 
mother in a bed of leaves under a 
fallen tree. With her there, he did not 
feel cold nor miss the other pups so 
much. He wondered where they were 
and would not have been surprised had 
they joined him at any moment; but his 
mother knew they were gone forever. 
Her joy at having this one little fellow 
left to her was almost pitiful. All 
through the long night she cuddled and 
tenderly licked him. 

Just as the sky began to brighten for 
the day, she slipped out to get a drink 

35 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

and something to eat. A little dis- 
tance from the fallen tree was a path. 
Here she made her first stop, to examine 
the ground and find out what creatures 
had passed that way during the night. 
Moving slowly, with her keen nose to 
the earth, she suddenly became aware 
of something following her. Around 
she whirled with teeth bared for de- 
fense, only to find herself looking into 
the mild, half ashamed eyes of the pup 
who, too lonely to stay in the bed, had 
noiselessly crept after her. 

He hung his head now and looked 
wistfully at his mother until she licked 
his nose to show she forgave him and 
would let him come with her. In this 
way he started on his first big hunt. 

A rabbit had travelled the path 
shortly before them, so the mother 

36 



LEARNING TO HUNT 

moved with caution. Whenever she 
sniffed at the fresh tracks, the pup, who 
followed close at her heels, sniffed too 
and understood perfectly well that a 
rabbit was near. When she at last 
sighted Bunny and crouched, the pup 
copied her movement exactly, and when 
she leaped he sprang too, all atremble 
with excitement. The old rabbit 
jumped quickly enough to get away, but 
the pup saw him and enjoyed all the 
thrills of his first chase. 

Farther on they met a black and 
white skunk ambling home to his den. 
The pup, seeing him far ahead, crouched 
in readiness for attack. Here was a 
beautiful creature, no larger than the 
rabbit, actually coming towards him as 
though it wanted to be caught for break- 
fast. It never occurred to him that the 

37 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

skunk was a privileged character in the 
woods, whom foxes as well as smaller 
and larger animals had learned to let 
pass with plenty of room between. 
The mother, however, knew all about 
skunks and saw that trouble was com- 
ing. She rushed at the pup, nipped his 
ear and fairly shouldered him out of the 
way of the other animal. 

The skunk saw at once that all the 
disturbance was only over a young fox 
who had not sense enough to know that 
every path belonged to him. There- 
fore, he passed grandly, without even 
slackening his pace or changing his di- 
rection one inch. 

The pup, sniffing along the trail be- 
hind him, caught a disagreeable, musky 
smell which told, far better than his eyes 

could, that this animal was to be left 

38 




.:^-&- 



He became indignant" 



LEARNING TO HUNT 

alone. He followed him very care- 
fully at what seemed a safe distance, 
until he became indignant and whirled 
half around with feathery tail straight 
in the air. That was warning enough 
to satisfy even the pup's inquisitive 
mind, so he turned back with a bound 
and found his mother sitting in the path 
amusedly watching him. She saw that 
the little fox had already learned cau- 
tion — the most important lesrson of the 
woods. 

A few yards farther they circled a 
marshy place where spring frogs were 
singing merrily; "peep, peep — peep," 
they sang, over and over again. There 
seemed to be one piping from the bank, 
almost under the pup's nose, but he 
could not find it, nor could he find any 
of the others, for they were in the water 

39 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 






with only their small noses and eyes 

stuck out behind the blades of grass and 

twigs. 

The old fox examined the mud for 

tracks, satisfied herself 

that those she found were 

made by a coon and not by 

man or dog, then turned to 

look for the pup. He was 

in the act of springing on 

something he had found in 

the grass. Up went his 

front paws, and then down 

he came right on top of 

a mouse which had been 

feeding on winter dried 

cranberries clinging to 

vines near the water. 

The pup had smelled it 

and found its hiding place 
40 




Coon Tracks 



LEARNING TO HUNT 

all by himself. Now he tussled with 
the furry little creature until it had 
squeaked its last squeak. 

The mother let him eat it all, then led 
away to Goose Creek. Here the in- 
cautious pup surprised a great blue 
heron in the act of catching a minnow. 
With a mighty flapping of big wings 
the scared bird started over the water, 
his long legs tucked up under his tail, 
his neck doubled back, so that it seemed 
only half its real length. When he got 
well away, his angry challenge — 
' u-r-g-h-h-, u-r-g-h, urgh, urgh'' — could 
be heard all over Cranberry Swamp, 
warning his mate and all the other birds 
and animals, too, that there was danger 
lurking near. 

A red squirrel ran out on a limb 
nearby to see what had disturbed the 

41 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

old fisherman. Two crows circled cau- 
tiously in that direction, a pair of wood 
ducks sprang from a pool below and 
winged their way up the creek towards 
a safer feeding ground; the frogs 
stopped peeping, and the lone king- 
fisher, sitting on a stub in the stream, 
enjoying the first rays of the morning 
sun, darted away with a rattling scream. 
It was a wonderful lesson to the pup. 
It taught him that he must be careful 
not to disturb any creature that can 
spread alarm and excite the whole 
wood. It awoke in him the true fox 
nature which prompts the wisest of 
them to travel with all the noiseless 
stealth of a crafty Indian. He found 
out then what he saw more and more 
clearly the longer he lived, that there 
is a bond joining together the woods 

42 



LEARNING TO HUNT 

folk into one great family, for mutual 
protection. 

He was the one feared, the outcast, 
this time; but at another time it might 
be a man with a gun, or a big hound, 
whom he would flee from, when warned, 
with the same dread as Blue Heron. 

Now, he slunk back of some bushes 
and waited there while the noise and 
excitement died down. 

Red Squirrel, however, kept his 
bright eyes on him, and fussed and 
scolded, without a stop. To him the 
branches were just like so many paths, 
over which he could run like the wind 
from one tree to another, until he 
reached the little hole in the hollow 
cedar he lived in, or dashed to another 
safe little hole under the roots of a mag- 
nolia, not far away. Therefore, when 

43 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

he was off the ground, why should he 
fear a fox, especially a young one 
like this? '"Bur-r-r-r-r-r-r," he fairly 
shouted as he danced and fumed first 
on one limb, then on one nearer, until 
so close overhead that the fox could see 
the four sharp teeth with which he 
gnawed nuts so easily. 

There was something, however, which 
Red Squirrel had not thought about. 
With a young fox, or with any young 
animal, there is usually a mother. The 
annoying little nut eater had one 
glimpse of a red streak flinging itself at 
him from behind, then in a fright he lost 
his footing on the low limb, fell into 
the bushes, and had to run with all his 
might to get up the next tree without 
being punished. Very quiet after that, 
he let the foxes trot off unmolested. 

44 



CHAPTER IV 

OTHER WOODSFOLK 

THE mother led the way towards 
the nest under the fallen tree, 
but was stopped in the old path by the 
sound of a man's footsteps. Quickly 
she slipped into the bushes. The pup 
was not sure what to do. However, 
when he saw Farmer Ben's friend, John, 
stalking down the path, he scrambled 
out of the way in a hurry. 

''Well, if there isn't Ben's little 
sharp-nosed fox!" muttered the man in 
surprise. ''Ben's fox! Ha, ha. I 
should like to see Ben catch him now!" 
He saw how wonderfully the wild little 

45 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

animal melted away among the shad- 
ows, then he stalked off with many a 
shake of the head as he thought of his 
chickens at home. 

Everyone he met after that had to be 
told the good joke about the den and 
Ben's sharp-nosed fox, so the story 
spread, and ''Ben's fox'' became for a 
time the special joy of all the village 
gossips, who liked Ben none too well. 
Those whom he had angered with sly 
bargains in the past, said that he him- 
self was like a cunning fox — a black 
one; so it was a fox against a fox. 
''Black Ben against Red Ben," someone 
of doubtful wit expressed it. This 
amused a number of the boys, and at 
once gave the little red fox a nickname. 
Through all his later career he was 

known as Red Ben. 

46 



OTHER WOODSFOLK 

When people good naturedly teased 
Ben Slown, who never could enjoy a 
joke on himself, he grew more and more 
surly. He soon saw that, until he 
caught the foxes, he would always be 
plagued, especially when someone lost 
a chicken. So he began to scheme and 
set more traps. He had always hated 
foxes, but never more bitterly than 
now. 

With little suspicion of this, the 
mother was teaching Red Ben the tricks 
that every wise fox must know. Night 
after night they hunted mice together, 
or lay in wait for fat muskrats in the 
swamp, or chased big Bun or the other 
cottontail rabbits. 

Often they played in the moonlight 
and wrestled and rolled by the hour in a 
sandy hillock near the Ridge. Both 

47 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

thoroughly enjoyed this. The usual 
game was a mock fight. The mother 
would rush at the pup and roll him head 
over heels, then hold him to the ground 
while he tried with all his might to 
break away. Sometimes she would 
pretend to bite a foot or a leg, or to tear 
an ear, he meanwhile striving to protect 
himself. 

At first she was very careful not to 
hurt him, but as he grew stronger he also 
gained a wonderful quickness which 
often surprised the mother, whose own 
motions, although almost like lightning, 
were soon no match for his. Then the 
games became wildly exciting. The 
pup could escape the old fox's rushes, 
and himself nip and worry and trip and 
get away, and then roll over and over 
with her, in a lightning battle to get the 



OTHER WOODSFOLK 

throat-hold which ended every game. 

All this was splendid training for 
Red Ben. He could practice all kinds 
of fighting tricks and learn how to deal 
with an animal larger and stronger than 
himself. Had his little brothers lived 
to be his playmates, he might never 
have had this experience, which meant 
so much to him later on. 

His cleverness and growing strength 
made him a wonderful companion for 
the old fox. She would go nowhere 
without him, and began to rely more 
and more on his help in their hunts. 

It happened that wild strawberries 
were especially good that year, and so 
were eaten occasionally by the foxes, 
who picked up those the village children 
did not find. After them the cherries 
ripened, and the big mulberry tree at the 

49 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

corner of Ben Slown's fence began to 
drop delicious fruit. Fat robins, star- 
lings and black birds picked their share, 
but at night, especially after a rain 
heavy enough to knock down a good 
supply, the Oak Ridge animals fairly 
swarmed around the mulberry tree. 

The shy red foxes usually reached it 
after the last sign of the sun had left 
the sky, so it was not strange that on 
one evening they found there ahead of 
them one of the deer from Cranberry 
Swamp with her two spotted fawns. 
The watchful doe scented them, gave 
one quick snort and led the fawns away 
in great bounds, for fear they were in 
danger. All three leaped over the field 
fence as if it had been a bush in the 
path. 

The rush of the deer to cover fright- 
50 



OTHER WOODSFOLK 

ened two rabbits just as the foxes came 
cautiously out of the wood. Away 
dashed Red Ben to head them off, but 
too late. When he returned, a huge 
coon hurried to the tree and began to 
swallow mulberries as fast as he could 
pick them up. The mother fox, how- 
ever, took no notice of old Ring Tail, 
and he was too busy to worry over the 
foxes just then. 

Up in the tree, Red Ben heard an oc- 
casional squeak, and soon spied a little 
brown squirrel which was quite the pret- 
tiest creature he had ever seen. While 
he watched, it suddenly sprang into the 
air with feet outstretched and sailed to 
a fence post near the wood; there it 
alighted almost as softly as a leaf, look- 
ing so much like a clinging piece of bark 
that the pup could hardly believe it 

51 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

was anything alive. This was Flying 
Squirrel, one of the very nicest of the 
woodsfolk. 

While he was busy with the juicy 
mulberries the pup did not keep a very 
good watch behind him, and so was sur- 
prised suddenly to find White Stripe, 
the skunk, nosing around close by. 
He, too, liked the mulberries, it seemed. 
The fox kept one eye on him, but found 
he attended strictly to his own business. 

A moment later a furry gray creature, 
nearly his own size, came stealthily 
along the fence. The pup was worried 
and ready to run at the slightest sign 
from his mother, but she kept right on 
nosing about, and old Possum joined 
the feeding. He, however, crawled up 
the big tree, where he wandered from 
limb to limb, picking off the ripest fruit 

52 




flying Squirrel, one of the very nicest of the woodsfolk" 



OTHER WOODSFOLK 

and often by mistake knocking down 
some to the creatures below. 

It was a weird assemblage that the 
moon looked down upon that night. 
Two small coons came from the swamp 
with their mother for a hurried look 
around; White Stripe's mate, a wonder- 
ful white skunk, also appeared, and a 
brown screech owl sat on a nearby pine 
limb to watch and whinny softly, so 
that his mate, who was looking for mice 
farther along the fence, might always 
know where to find him. 

By this time Red Ben knew most of 
the wood creatures, and they knew him. 
Ringtail, Possum, White Stripe and 
Screech Owl were hunters; like himself 
they preferred meat to grass, fruit, roots 
and nuts. Although each had a scent 
entirely his own, each also had the 

53 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

''hunter'' smell, quite different from the 
meadow mice, who lived on seeds and 
grass, or from Red Squirrel, who ate 
nuts, mushrooms and buds. Quite dif- 
ferent too from the deer and from Bun, 
the big rabbit who lived near one of the 
farm gardens and enjoyed parsnips, 
string beans and other vegetables, 
whenever the clover was scarce. 

The woodsfolk could be divided 
into two big families — the first one 
made up of those who hunt and the 
other of those who are hunted. The 
hunters get used to seeing each other 
and to running across each other's trails 
at night. As long as there is food 
enough for all, they rarely quarrel; but 
jealousy and suspicion keep them from 
being real friends. Red Ben did not 
think of playing with the young coons; 

54 



OTHER WOODSFOLK 

nor would young skunks have interested 
him at all as playmates. 

The four-footed hunters all had teeth 
very much like those of a dog or a cat, 
while the little animals that they 
hunted had gnawing teeth, like those of 
the mouse. Even the woodchuck and 
the muskrat had gnawing teeth; they 
liked to eat grass and tender roots. 
Screech Owl and other hunters among 
the birds, from big Bald Eagle all the 
way down to little Sparrow Hawk, had 
hooked beaks and long sharp claws or 
talons, with which to catch their prey. 



55 



CHAPTER V 

GRAY FOX 

AT first Red Ben saw no other foxes, 
and rarely came across the tracks 
of any, for Ben Slown's traps did their 
work well. There was, however, one 
cunning old fellow who paid a visit to 
the Ridge whenever there was espe- 
cially good hunting weather. With 
him, on one never to be forgotten night 
in late August, Red Ben had an ad- 
venture. 

He and his mother had gone to Ben 
Slown's fields to hunt the little short 
tailed meadow mice which were so 
plentiful there that their paths had been 

56 



GRAY FOX 

gnawed through the grass in every di- 
rection. They had caught two, and 
were once more entering Oak Ridge 
wood, when Red Ben noticed that his 
mother hesitated to go farther and kept 
anxiously looking into the shadows. 
He heard a deer snort; then, in the half 
darkness of the wood, he caught the 
glint of two eyes. 

This new creature was certainly no 
coon or possum; the eyes were higher 
above the ground than either of these 
would hold its head. Quickly it moved 
into the moonlight and showed itself to 
be a fox, not unlike the mother in form, 
but gray in color, with reddish legs and 
a tail entirely lacking the beautiful 
roundness of the red fox's. 

Instinctively the pup stood as 
straight and tall as he could, while 

57 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

along his back the hair fairly tingled 
with dislike. He saw his mother try 
to slip away, and then crouch suddenly 
with ears back and warning whine. 
He saw Gray Fox trot up, walk around 
her, and then bare his teeth in a snarl 
that sent off the soft-eyed mother in a 
hurry. How his heart pounded then, 
and how the fury welled up in his 
breast ! 

Gray Fox next turned in the direc- 
tion of Red Ben, but stopped short 
when he found the young fox facing 
him without flinching. Stiff legged 
and disdainful he slowly walked for- 
ward, and got the surprise of his life as 
Red Ben flew at him like a fury, bit him 
on the side of the head, again on the 
fobt when he reared up, and then on the 
tip of his precious nose. Back he stag- 

58 



GRAY FOX 

gered, snarling angrily, but scarcely 
knowing what to do. 

Then Red Ben, remembering well the 
holds his mother had taught in their 
games, flew at his thick neck, caught the 
heavy, loose skin behind the ear and 
closed his sharp teeth until they nearly 
met. 

Gray Fox's red eyes glared back at 
him furiously, as he struggled this way 
and that, but he could not turn to bite 
while those jaws kept their hold. Fear 
grew until he was in a panic. What if 
the mother fox were to return now and 
fall on him from behind? He threw 
himself on the ground, then rolled over, 
clawing like a cat, and dragging Red 
Ben down with him so suddenly that all 
the breath was knocked out of him and 
his fine hold loosened. 

59 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

This gave Gray Fox a wonderful 
chance. He was the first on his feet. 
He leaped for the throat hold. 

Red Ben, still gasping, was pinned 
to the ground, almost throttled. The 
big, heavy enemy had all the advantage 
— it never had been an equal fight, and 
now Red Ben was down. 

Oh, if his mother would only come! 
That wonderful, faithful, swift little 
mother who could be so very fierce when 
he was in danger. Somehow the very 
thought of her gave him courage. He 
made one mighty kick and at the same 
instant snapped at the fat ear of the 
beast above. 

Luck was with him; he nipped its 

tender edge, and Gray Fox gave a 

scream. The jaws were loosened, and 

in that instant Red Ben's lightning 

60 





f0f/<^. ,' # ;f' -^^ 


Ei 


# r/ 


^'mmm 




% 


"Ml 


\ 




U^-^Mv. . f 





GRAY FOX 

speed saved him. He rolled over, 
leaped to his feet and shot away. Diz- 
zily he circled some bushes, with the 
other close behind; then something 
warned him to stop. Gray Fox had 
vanished. 

Had he not been a red fox, raised by 
one of the wisest of mothers, Red Ben 
would probably have made a fatal mis- 
take, for, well hidden behind the bushes. 
Gray Fox was waiting to trap him when 
he came around. The thing was 
planned so well that had Red Ben kept 
on, he would almost have walked into 
the other's mouth. 

Just in time he guessed the trick and 

crouched to look all around. He was 

out of breath; he could hardly stop his 

panting to listen. His neck ached and 

strained muscles quivered, but what 

6i 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

mattered that, when he was free and 
able to match wits against wits? 

Often his mother had hidden this way 
to catch him in their games. He re- 
membered now that she had always lain 
in wait somewhere ahead, therefore 
Gray Fox would do the same — the 
safest road was that by which he had 
come. 

Dodging bushes and shadowy places 
he started back. There was no sound, 
no movement anywhere ahead; the noise 
and fury of the fight had scared away 
the other wild things and even quieted 
the night singing insects. Red Ben 
himself felt the awe of it all. He 
moved without stirring a leaf, at first 
in a cautious trot, then a gallop and at 
last a full run. Faster, faster — until 

on the hard woods path he let out every 

62 



GRAY FOX 

ounce of speed he had. It was the 
wonderful speed of the red fox, no 
longer just a cub. 

Gray Fox was left far behind : and to 
prevent his following the trail, Red 
Ben made circles in the dense swamp, 



3^.a^«-^^.^^ 




Red Ben 

circles that went around and around 
with apparently no end, for he leaped 
far to one side before shooting away to 
his old haunt by the fallen tree. 

Here he crouched, waiting for what- 
ever might happen next. Had Gray 
Fox been able to follow him, Red Ben 

63 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

would have fought to the death. He 
was on home ground here ; he would run 
no more. His spirit had not been 
broken; far from it! From the bottom 
of his heart he despised the big gray 
bully. He hated the strong smell of 
him still lingering in his nostrils. But 
he knew Gray Fox was the stronger. 

When, after hours of searching, his 
mother at last found him, the fierce 
glitter was still in his eyes. He was 
crouching in the same spot, watching 
with all the intense excitement of the 
young creature which, for the first time, 
is forced to take care of itself in a big 
world. 

Anxiously sniffing his head and neck, 
the old fox quickly learned through the 
scent much of the story of the fight. 
She found the cuts about the throat and 

64 



GRAY FOX 

licked them free from poison. She also 
licked off the dirt that still clung to his 
soft fur, looked him all over for other 
scars, and then mothered him until his 
high strung nerves were soothed and he 
limped stiffly after her for a sleep under 
the fallen tree. 

While he curled up in a round ball, 
with head buried between his fluffy tail 
and the even softer fur of his flank, the 
mother kept watch. She too was curled 
up in a tight, comfortable little ball, 
but she kept her chin resting on her 
fluffy tail so that her nose and eyes as 
well as both ears could be on guard. 

The moon had gone down, and 
around them now were the blackness 
and the stillness of that weird part of 
the night which comes just before the 
light of day. Night prowlers, large 

65 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

and small, were resting, waiting for the 
Sun's signal which would drive them to 
their beds. Day loving creatures felt 
the coming of the dawn, but dared not 
stir yet. The red fox's eyes drowsily 
closed, then opened with a snap: from 
far away floated the clear baying of a 
hound. 



66 



CHAPTER VI 

A LONG CHASE 

WELL the mother knew what that 
baying meant. Months before 
she had left her own hills beyond the 
big river, to escape the keen scented 
hounds and to raise her family here in 
the Pine Barrens, unmolested by them. 
Had one at last traced her"? Was he 
on her trail now, following her foot- 
prints unerringly to the fallen tree? 

She looked at the sleeping pup. He 
certainly could not take care of himself 
in a long chase. If the hound found 
where they were, she would have to run 
for both of them. But she must wait 

67 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

until there was no doubt that he was on 
her trail and not following Gray Fox or 
some other woods creature. 

For an hour she lay there, while the 
musical notes of the hound rang out in 
the breezeless morning air. He was 
working out a difficult trail, the one left 
by Red Ben in his night escape. How 
well those circles had been made ! But 
circles could only delay, not stop a 
trailer like this hound. The of tener he 
found him*self going around in aimless 
rings, the more determined he grew, 
until at last he was working along the 
swamp dangerously near the foxes. 

Red Ben was wide awake, but under- 
stood that he was to hide there while 
his mother took care of the dog. He 
had never seen a hound, so was full of 

curiosity. Just as he had once watched 

68 



A LONG CHASE 

Ben Slown from the mouth of the bur- 
row, he now peeped between the limbs 
of the old tree to see the lanky black and 
white creature with the flapping ears 
come roaring up the trail. 

Behind the hound came Farmer 
Slown's woolly dog Shep and a white 
fox terrier. Their noses were not keen 
enough for trailing, so they encouraged 
the hound to do the work while they en- 
joyed the fun of it. Red Ben had seen 
them before; they usually accompanied 
the farmer in his walks. 

Instinctively he knew then that 
Farmer Slown was somehow connected 
with the hound and this hunt. He was 
instantly more than ever on the alert; 
undoubtedly the farmer was somewhere 
near. 

Through the bushes came the clumsy 
69 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

dogs, with a great crashing of dry twigs, 
quite different from Red Ben's silent 
way of moving. He could see the ex- 
cited glare of their eyes, the red tongues 
and white teeth. The hound, a huge 
creature, seemed to guess the fallen tree 
was a ''foxy'' place: nose in air, he 
turned to it, full of suspicion. The 
other dogs followed expectantly. 

Red Ben's heart beat against his ribs. 
Should he run"? Did they see him? 
Something inside him seemed to warn, 
''wait, wait, don't move!" 

And then a wild cry of joy came from 
the little fox terrier. He had seen the 
mother. She had deliberately run past 
him to draw attention from the pup, but 
he did not have sense enough to guess 
that. With another yell he bounded 
after her, and after him came Shep. 

70 



A LONG CHASE 

The hound alone stood there doubtfully, 
but he could not bear to be left alone. 
With a mighty bellow from his deep 
lungs he too rushed after the old fox, 
and went crashing towards Oak Ridge 
on the fresh trail. 

Again Red Ben had escaped. He 
heard the hound go farther and farther 
into the Barrens; fainter came the bay- 
ing, always fainter until it died away 
entirely. 

The swamp once more breathed freely 
and naturally. Blue jays called, flick- 
ers whinnied, two of Red Squirrel's 
cousins came out of their hole under a 
cedar root, Gray Squirrel was calling 
out, 'Tee-we-e-e-e-k, kek, kek, kek, fee- 
wee-e-e-e-k" — everywhere within sight 
things seemed peaceful and happy. 

Yet, somewhere in the Pine Barrens, 
71 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

Red Ben knew his mother was running 
on and on, with death on her trail. One 
slim red fox against three dogs. Would 
she ever come back*? 

Red Ben crept from under the tree 
and looked all around. The red squir- 






\... ^ 



^.^J.v/'^^^^^ 




Red Ben's Mother 

rels scolded at him, but he did not notice 
them; he had made up his mind to fol- 
low his mother. Full of trouble and 
scarcely knowing where to go, he at last 
wandered to Oak Ridge. Through its 
leafy tangles he trotted, in the direction 

he had last heard the hound. A branch 

72 



A LONG CHASE 

of the old woods path ran here, and with 
the instinct of the fox to take always the 
best road, he followed it. 

Suddenly, however, something un- 
familiar appeared ahead and caused him 
to stop as if frozen. It did not move, 
he could not make out what it was, but 
he knew that never before had it been 
there when he followed this path. 

Cautiously he slipped into the woods 
and circled until he caught the scent on 
the faint breeze. One sniff was enough. 
It was Farmer Slown ! 

Away ran Red Ben, not knowing, 
however, how narrow had been his 
escape. Ben Slown, gun in hand, was 
sitting there watching the trail. At that 
moment he was looking in the other di- 
rection, whence he expected the mother 
to run ahead of the hound. 

73 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

Red Ben knew now the danger of 
moving about in daytime. At night 
man is asleep or else blundering about 
blinded by the dark. His traps and his 
poisoned baits may do harm then, but he 
himself is made harmless. There is not 
a creature of the wild that does not 
learn this. 

To Red Ben the world seemed full 
of enemies. He dared not go farther, 
nor wander back; so he crouched in the 
laurel bushes and waited. And then 
he heard, far away, the baying of the 
hound. Nearer it came. It thrilled 
the young fox : he knew his mother was 
not far off. 



74 



CHAPTER VII 

RED BEN IS ALONE 

NERVOUSLY Red Ben wandered 
out of the laurel and up the 
Ridge. Something seemed to lead him 
in that direction- Ahead rang the clear 
notes of the eager hound and another 
sound, the sharp yelp of Shep; the fox 
terrier had dropped far behind. Then 
Red Ben caught a glimpse of a bril- 
liantly red body weaving its way 
among the laurel clumps, his mother, at 
last! 

Down the Ridge he loped to meet 
her, into her path, directly before her. 

75 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

Joyfully he sprang to lick her lips in 
greeting. 

She stopped, but only for an instant. 
Her mouth was open, the hot breath 
came in quick pants, and her beautiful 
tail dragged the ground. 

Had something gone wrong ^ Red 
Ben had only to listen to the coming 
hound to know. In her own hilly 
country beyond the river, the mother 
could have dodged the dogs and lost 
them among the rocks, but on this luck- 
less morning in the flat Barrens, when 
there was no wind, and when the damp 
ground held the scent no matter how she 
broke and twisted the trail, they could 
not be shaken off. 

She loped bravely on, with Red Ben 
close behind. On the Ridge, every 
part of which she knew so well, it might 

76 



RED BEN IS ALONE 

be possible to fool the hound before her 
strength gave way. She went to the 
top, then tried the trick of making two 
circles and running back on her trail 
until there was a good chance to leap 
far to one side. If the dogs did not see 
her, nor find where the trail began again 
after her great leap, she would be safe. 
Up to this time Red Ben had stayed 
with her, listening, watching, scheming 
as he ran. Now he deliberately went 
in the other direction, leaving the 
double track just in time to miss being 
seen. Up the Ridge behind him rushed 
the dogs in full cry. But suddenly 
there was quiet; they were trying to un- 
ravel the trail at the place where the 
foxes doubled back. 

When next Red Ben heard them they 
were strangely near. He ran to the 

77 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

Other side of the Ridge, but heard them 
still — they were following him! No 
longer was the mother between. It was 
Red Ben now who had to show his cun- 
ning. 

Down to Cranberry Swamp he ran 
and through it to a log he knew about, 
which lay across Goose Creek. Beyond 
this was more swamp and then another 
long stretch of the Pine Barrens. 

Red Ben, hot, mud splashed and 
winded, was loping through the Bar- 
rens, clambering under fallen trees, run- 
ning along the tops of logs and doing 
everything else he could think of to 
make the trail hard to follow, when all 
at once an animal sprang up from its 
bed almost under his nose. 

Red Ben whirled back as he recog- 
nized the furious snarl of Gray Fox I 

78 



RED BEN IS ALONE 

The hound and Shep could be no worse 
than this enemy. What ill luck had 
brought him here ? He ran the way he 
had come, dodging under the fallen 
trees as before, until close ahead he 
heard the dogs, coming surely and fast. 
Then with a mighty leap to one side, 
such as his mother had made, he left a 
gap in the trail and ran in a new direc- 
tion. The hound lost his trail, found 
the fresh one of Gray Fox, and after a 
moment's hesitation followed it straight 
away into the Pine Barrens. Red Ben 
was saved ! 

Now he could rest and enjoy the 
music of the chase and wonder how Gray 
Fox liked it all; but soon he started 
back to find his mother. Fear was 
gone. He had done big things. 

Night found Red Ben still alone. 

79 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

The old fox had not come to the bed 
under the fallen tree in Cranberry 
Swamp, so all alone he curled up and 
slept. Towards morning he crawled 
stiffly out and wandered over to the 
Ridge. It was strangely quiet and de- 
serted there too. Red Ben stood beside 
a great oak and called. It was just a 
short, lonely cry, but had the mother 
heard it she would have answered and 
come bounding to find him. 

For a long time he waited there, hope- 
fully. Then he called again and 
waited, and still again; but that time 
there was such a lonely wail in the cry 
that Jim Crow and his mate came fly- 
ing over, to find out what was going on. 
They saw Red Ben crouching miserably 
against the butt of the old oak, and at 

once set up a great cawing, 

80 



RED BEN IS ALONE 

If there is anything unusual happen- 
ing in the woods, a crow will call to- 
gether all the other crows within hear- 
ing, to look into the matter. That is 
why every crow knows so much; what 
one finds, all are given a chance to see. 

Red Ben, sick at heart and more 
lonely than ever, slipped into the 
bushes and hid. This was the best 
thing he could have done, for when the 
flock of crows could no longer see him, 
they feared he might be playing some 
trick on them. Up they flew with more 
cawing and scolding; but there was no 
fun in scolding an animal that could not 
be seen, so one after another drifted 
away and left him. 

He called no more, but wandered 

about the Ridge where he had last seen 

his mother. In this way he came to the 

8i 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

place in which Ben Slown had crouched 
with his gun the day before. He ex- 
amined the spilled tobacco and tracks in 
the path, then sniffed them all over 
again. Impossible as it seemed for his 
mother's and Ben Slown's tracks to be 
found together, he had nevertheless 
caught a trace of her scent here. 

He did not know that while he led the 
hound into the Barrens beyond the 
Swamp, the tired mother had started 
after him along the path where crouched 
the waiting, sinister figure of the farmer. 
He only knew that she had gone, leav- 
ing him — the fatherless, brotherless, 
playmateless little fox pup of Oak 
Ridge — alone. 



82 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE WOODS AWAKE 

THE moon was shedding its silvery 
light in checkerboard patches 
under the high oaks on the Ridge* In 
the fields below hung a heavy mist, and 
everywhere was the glitter of wet 
leaves, for a thunder storm had only re- 
cently passed. 

All the woodsf oik were out playing or 
feeding, while the insects drummed and 
sang their loudest, since the moisture 
had refreshed the whole woods world. 

Under one of the oaks sat Red Ben. 
This new feel of the air and ground, 
after many hot, dry days and nights, had 

83 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

awakened in him too a longing to play 
or rather, perhaps, a longing to have 
someone to play with. Three miser- 
able, lonely days had passed since he 
lost his mother, three nights of watching 
and waiting and hoping for her return. 

Now he could find nothing better to 
do than watch the other creatures en- 
joying themselves in the moonlight. 
Already a few acorns were sweet enough 
to be eaten by the little animals that 
gnaw, and already the hunters, knowing 
this, were wandering from tree to tree 
searching for any little nut eater that 
was unwary enough to be caught. 

So still was Red Ben that the others 
scarcely noticed him. One tiny shrew 
mouse after another went skipping by, 
in their search for insects; sometimes 
one would burrow swiftly under the 

84 



THE WOODS AWAKE 

leaves and come out at quite another 
spot. Restless little creatures they 
were, with long <:^J^^'^^'^^^^ 
noses and eyes so ^^^M^^^z^^ 

small they could ^f^^^^ 

scarcely be seen. ^^^ J -v^\^^ 

If they had flat ""^-- 

front feet like 

those of the mole, and were not the tini- 
est little furry creatures in the woods, 
they would often be taken for moles. 
Their fur is almost the same. 

The mole, living entirely in his nar- 
row burrows under the ground, has no 
need for eyes and so has lost the use of 
those nature first gave him; the shrew, 
living partly above the ground but 
mostly in burrows, needs to see a little, 
and so has very small eyes; the active 
deer mouse which scorns burrowing and 

85 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 




Deer Mouse 



usually lives in hollow trees like the 
squirrels, needs sharp eyes and so has 
immense ones. 

To protect his big 
eyes from twigs and 
briars in the dark, 
Deer Mouse has <^J 
a regular fence 
of whiskers, while 
Shrew's little eyes 
only need a few small whiskers and 

old Mole needs no 



^^^1^ 



whiskers at all. 

In his habit of 
running around in 
the woods at night. 
Red Ben was very 
much like Deer 
Mouse, and so had many long whis- 
kers. Some stuck up from each side 

86 










Shrew 



THE WOODS AWAKE 

of his nose and curved over the eyes; 
some, and these were really eyebrows, 
started above his eyes and curved down. 

Therefore, on the darkest night, Red 
Ben could safely wander through the 
woods. Before a hidden briar could 
touch either eye, it would hit one of the 
hairs and give warning in time for the 
fox to shut his eyes quickly and also 
duck his head. The long whiskers were 
often very useful to him. 

The shrews interested Red Ben, but 
because they had the hunter smell, he 
did not try to catch them. They were 
so small that worms and beetles were 
their chief prey. 

On the damp ground the woods 
creatures could jump about without a 
rustle. That is what they like to do. 
The mice wait at the entrance of their 

87 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

homes until the way seems safe, then 
dash to the nearest bush and hide. If 
they see no owl or other hunter they 
make a dash to the next bush and so on 
until they safely reach the feeding 
ground. A rustle would catch the at- 
tention of any waiting owl and bring 
him swooping down. 

Red Ben saw deer mice watching in- 
quisitively from the edges of laurel 
clumps, also little burrowing pine mice 
whose sharp eyes fairly twinkled in the 
moonlight. He saw Brown Weasel 
chase a nimble deer mouse up an oak, 
and then he saw Flying Squirrel and his 
family having a rollicking game of tag 
around the largest limbs. Fat toads sat 
about, lazily watching for beetles. 
The pleasant rain had been taken in 

through the pores of their skin instead 

88 



THE WOODS AWAKE 

of through their mouths, but they had 
had enough to satisfy them. 

On all sides there were little things 
moving, even from up in the air and 
down in the ground came squeaks of 
various kinds. Everyone seemed to 
have a play fellow — except Red Ben. 

At last, however, a little possum came 
ambling through the wood all alone. 
Red Ben watched him sniff about and 
climb among some fallen branches. 
When the gray creature, with little 
bright eyes, caught sight of the in- 
terested fox, he crouched on one of the 
limbs and gazed back just as interest- 
edly. 

Red Ben's playfulness surged over 
him; he pranced forward, reared on his 
hind legs and waved his front paws en- 
ticingly in front of the little possum's 

89 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

nose. But Possum fell over backwards, 
terror in his eyes. Once on the ground 
he scurried for a tree, and climbed up in 
a panic. Red Ben, however, was just 
as quick. Thinking it was all a game, 
he chased after him, leaped high into 
the air and caught the scaly tail just as 
it was getting out of reach. 

Down plumped the little possum, 
with wide open, hissing mouth. But 
instead of running, he lay where he had 
fallen. 

Red Ben was greatly surprised. He 
had meant no harm. Carefully he 
sniffed and pawed the motionless 
creature. Yes, his playfellow was cer- 
tainly dead. For a minute or two he 
walked around. There was nothing he 
could do, so he decided to leave the 

place. 

go 




Possum fell over backwards' 



THE WOODS AWAKE 

Just as he reached the next tree, how- 
ever, he heard a scraping noise and 
whirled around in time to see the ap- 
parently dead possum go up the oak's 
trunk even faster than the first time. 
Sticking his sharp little toe nails into 
the crevices of the rough bark, he could 
get a good hold where Red Ben's toes, 
which were formed for running, could 
not have gripped at all. When nearly 
at the top of the tree, he stopped to look 
down at Red Ben, grinning. The fox 
had at first fooled the little possum, but 
now the little fellow had done some 
fooling himself. 

Red Ben looked around for the mice 
and other little creatures, but found 
that they had vanished. Being the 
color of the dead leaves and limbs near 
which they played and fed, and know- 

91 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

ing all the holes and how best to reach 
the nearest one, all of them could hide 
quickly. They had been frightened. 
Many minutes would pass before they 
dared to crawl out again. 



92 



CHAPTER IX 

STUDYING THE ENEMY 

WHEN Red Ben was trotting 
back to the Swamp, he heard 
Farmer Slown's hound baying. He 
stopped at once to listen. It was not 
the joy cry that comes with the scent of 
a fresh trail ; there was, indeed, a wail at 
the end that puzzled him. He listened 
a while in silence, then, pointing his 
sharp nose in that direction, barked back 
his defiance. ''Yap, yap, ya-rrrrr.'' 
After a pause he barked again. 

The hound, who was tied in the barn- 
yard and howling simply because he 

93 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

felt lonely, heard the fox and at once 
grew quiet. Farmer Slown heard him 
too, through his open window. He, 
however, did not remain quiet. He 
fussed and fumed the rest of the night, 
and made more plans to catch the fox 
which was so bold as to bark at him. 

Red Ben, meanwhile, stole along the 
fence towards the farm buildings. He 
was drawn by an irresistible curiosity. 
It was here his greatest enemy lived, the 
one who was somehow connected with 
the disappearance of his mother and of 
his brothers. 

The farm was very quiet in the dark- 
ness. The chickens were still asleep on 
their roosts, and no animal stirred. 
Even the windmill over the well had 
stopped turning, and so gave forth none 
of its usual creaks and groans. 

94 



STUDYING THE ENEMY 

The damp air, however, was laden 
with scents. The fox's keen nose 
picked out the odor of perspiring horses, 
of sheep and of pigs. It caught, too, 
the peculiar smell of man and the smell 
of smoke and cooked food and slops, 
which always is found where man lives. 
There was also a dull, nameless scent 
made up of a hundred different things, 
like the grease on wagon axles, old 
harness, rusting iron, clothes out to dry 
and other things about which Red Ben 
knew nothing. 

This was indeed a new world to the 
young fox, who had often wandered 
near the place with his mother, but 
never before ventured so close. Weird 
shapes of wagons made him keep away 
from the barn shed. He feared, too, 
the windmill, which he had once seen 

95 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

move in a suspicious way. Nor did he 
care about coming closer to the pigs, 
lying in filthy sties and grunting in their 
sleep. Altogether he much preferred 
the clean woods, where sweeter scents 
filled his nostrils and no weird creations 
of man lay strewn about in all their 
ugliness. 

It was the chicken house that in- 
terested Red Ben most. From its open 
windows came occasional sleepy clucks 
and murmurs as the closely packed 
fowls jostled each other in their dreams. 
Suddenly, too, a rooster crowed, so 
sharply that the fox leaped to one side. 
Other roosters in the little house took 
up the challenge and crowed. They 
were heard by roosters at the next farm, 
who thereupon crowed too and woke up 
the roosters in the village, who also felt 

96 



STUDYING THE ENEMY 

like crowing. Day had not yet come, 
however; it was only the moonlight they 
saw, so all promptly went to sleep again. 

Red Ben knew very well that each 
crow came from a toothsome fowl, so he 
took a most natural interest in this 
chorus. When once it was over, how- 
ever, he felt uneasy. Instinct warned 
him he was being watched. He looked 
all around and then, happening to 
glance up, caught the hostile eye of a big 
gray cat, watching him from the hen 
house roof. 

He had never before seen a cat, and 
so was suspicious at once, especially as 
this one now opened its mouth to give 
vent to a yowl of indignation. He 
sidled off towards the wood, keeping a 
watchful eye on grim pussy. 

There was straw scattered around on 
97 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

the ground, and from a bunch of this 
he startled a feathered whirlwind, in the 
shape of a guinea hen who had been 
sitting there on a nest of her eggs. Red 
Ben jumped backwards, ready for a dash 
in any direction. 

''Chah! Che, che, chahhh!'' screamed 
the guinea as she ran about. ''Chah! 
Chah!'' came shrilly from the trees 
nearby where all the other guineas were 
roosting. The chickens awoke and cac- 
kled, the hound bayed, Shep barked from 
the locked stable, and in the midst of it 
the little fox, the innocent cause of all 
this hubbub, slipped away towards the 
quiet, friendly wood. 

His anxiety lest something follow 
made him careless and brought him face 
to face with a cow, lying down in the 
meadow. Dodging her surprised snort, 

98 



STUDYING THE ENEMY 

he ran full tilt into another who, in turn, 
drove him to a third, and so on until he 
had somehow escaped the herd and was 
fairly flying towards the wood. Not 
till he was in its cool shadows, among 
the silent woodsf oik, could he once more 
feel safe. 

From the farm still came the 
''chahhh" of the excited guineas, and 
when, with the first rays of the sun, Ben 
Slown stepped out of his house, a mass 
of guinea feathers met his gaze. They 
were strewn all about the half eaten 
body of the guinea hen who once had 
faithfully sat on her nest back of the hen 
house. 

Farmer Slown did not look for 
feathers on the nose of the big cat. He 
never found out that the sight of the 
guinea running about in the dark was 

99 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

too much for the hunter instinct of his 
pet. Instead, he remembered only the 
barking of the fox in the night, and 
shook his fist in the direction of the 
Ridge. 



100 



CHAPTER X 

JIM crow's signal 

INSTEAD of sleeping under the 
fallen tree in Cranberry Swamp, 
where the fleas had become too lively for 
comfort, Red Ben had made it a practice 
to pick out a new place nearly every 
day. This time he chose a laurel clump 
on the top of Oak Ridge. There was 
an advantage in this high bed ; he could 
keep an eye on Ben Slown's farm, 
whence he now expected trouble of some 
kind to come. 

He had lately paid special attention 
to the danger signals of all the wild 

lOI 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

creatures, and on them relied for first 
warning, so he curled up in his usual 
tight ball, with eyes closed, but ears un- 
covered to take in every sound. 

The ''check, check" of red wing black- 
birds, the rasp of brown thrashers, the 
screech of sparrow hawks and the rust- 
lings of a great wood full of happy life 
went through his ears unheeded. The 
bark of Red Squirrel made him look up 
for a moment, to make sure that the 
little fellow was only talking to his 
mate; so also did the whirring of a 
grouse that some prowling hunter had 
scared up nearby; but during most of 
the time he could doze. 

From a pine, near the fields below, 
came an occasional reassuring ''caw'' 
from Jim Crow, who was keeping guard 
while the crow flock fed in the sheep 

I02 



JIM CROWS SIGNAL 

pasture. Everything seemed all right 
to him. To be sure there were two red- 
tail hawks soaring high in the sky, but 
they were not worth bothering over at 
that distance. All at once, however, a 
man, followed by dogs, came from be- 
hind the farm buildings. 

''Caw, caw!'' called the old crow 
sharply, to tell the others that some- 
thing suspicious was in sight. A 
moment later he recognized Ben Slown 
and instantly flew out of his tree with 
the real danger call. ''Gawr, cawr, 
cawr!'' repeated again and again, as the 
other crows flew up too and scattered in 
the direction of the Barrens. 

The first call awoke Red Ben, and the 

second brought him to his feet in a 

bound. All he needed was the sight 

of the crows, flying towards the Barrens, 

103 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

to convince him that it was Ben Slown 
who was coming. Only the approach 
of a well known gun carrier could make 
those wise birds leave the neighborhood 
of the Ridge like that. 

He watched the farmer and his three 
dogs, then trotted down the far side of 
the Ridge, crossed Cranberry Swamp 
and entered the Barrens. There was a 
definite plan in all this. Gray Fox had 
freed him from Ben Slown' s dogs once 
before, now he could do it again. 

Red Ben knew the old bully's range 
rather well, and wasted no time in 
reaching the most likely thicket. Sure 
enough, the smell of Gray Fox was there 
in plenty, the smell Red Ben had such 
reason to fear and dislike. He sneaked 
cautiously up wind and spied the sleep- 
ing fox curled up under a pepper bush. 

104 



JIM CROWS SIGNAL 

He stood there undecided what to do. 
It was dangerous to trifle with Gray 
Fox. But matters were decided for him 
by an eddy of wind which carried his 
own scent into the thicket. 

Gray Fox's nose twitched; he looked 
up, recognized Red Ben and sprang to 
his feet with a snarl. Back dashed the 
young fox, and after him came the angry 
gray. Through the woods they sped to- 
wards Cranberry Swamp where, Red 
Ben felt sure, the farmer was already 
hunting for him. 

The gray bully was bent on revenge 
this time; he would teach the red up- 
start a thing or two! But just as fhey 
neared the log that crossed Goose Creek, 
the bay of a hound floated through the 
woods from straight ahead. Red Ben 
dashed across the log, but Gray Fox 

105 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

hung back and finally sneaked away to 
hide. And so it happened that when 
the black and white hound, Shep arid 
the fox terrier crossed the log on Red 
Ben's trail from the Ridge, they found 
the fresh, straight-away track of Gray 
Fox, and followed it. 

While Ben Slown sat on the Ridge 
waiting for a shot and while Red Ben 
lay comfortably in the Swamp, Gray 
Fox, rage in his heart, was leading the 
dog chorus on a wild chase far into the 
Barrens, to a deep hole he knew about. 
The entrance was too narrow to admit 
the large dogs, and the little fox terrier 
could be held at bay. It was well for 
Gray Fox that this hole was so far from 
the Ridge that Ben Slown could not 
hear the hound baying there. 

All this time Jim Crow was keeping 

io6 



JIM CROWDS SIGNAL 

his eye on the whereabouts of the 
farmer. Silently he would circle the 
Ridge, high over the trees, until he saw 
the crouching figure, then he would 
alight in a tall tree at some distance in 
the Swamp and by his ''cawr, cawr, 
cawr,'' keep back all the crows that 
started to return in the direction of the 
Ridge, By watching him Red Ben, too, 
knew where the enemy was lying in 
wait. 

When later Jim Crow saw the dis- 
gusted farmer start for his home, he 
flew joyously over the woods spreading 
the news with a ''caw — caw — caw." 
Soon afterwards he drew all the crows to 
the meadow by calling as rapidly as he 
could get out the sounds, ''Cehr, cehr, 
cehr, cehr, cehr." 

Jim Crow's language was becoming 

107 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

well known to Red Ben. Before the 
sun rose each morning, Jim would talk 
to the other crows. ''Caw — caw/' he 
would begin. Another would answer, 
''Caw — cehr, cehr, cehr/' and then from 
all over the Ridge would come other 
caws of various kinds. No two crows 
spoke at once. If Jim had something 
important to tell, all the rest listened. 
By the time the sun was nearly showing 
above the horizon the band had started 
towards the feeding ground. Usually 
this was in one of the fields, but visits 
to the river flats and to cranberry bogs 
were not uncommon. 

If a large hawk, or owl, was discov- 
ered by a crow, he called, "Caw, caw, 
caw, caw, caw," and brought to the spot 
every full grown crow within hearing. 

One after another would then dive at 

io8 



JIM CROWS SIGNAL 

the big bird and harass him until he 
escaped from the neighborhood. 

Once when Red Ben had discovered a 
dead crow and had pulled it out for 
inspection, another crow, flying over, 
caught sight of the apparently murdered 
bird and shot down with a furious 
'"Cahrrrr," which others, appearing from 
all sides at this harsh call, repeated until 
the woods resounded. 

Sometimes a crow would vary his 
caws with a melodious ''Kruck — kruck,'' 
which resembled one of Blue Jay's 
favorite notes, but was much louder. 

As Red Ben now rolled himself into 
the usual tight little ball, for sleep, he 
heard once more the joyous ''Caw — caw 
— caw'' of the old black sentinel and, 
with that ringing in his ears, content- 
edly closed his eyes. 

109 



CHAPTER XI 

HOW OTHERS HUNT 

WITH the first signs of darkness, 
Red Ben uncurled himself and 
took a long stretch. Then he gaped 
until nearly every tooth in his head was 
bared. After that he realized how 
ravenously hungry he felt, also how bad 
this dry, hot night would be for hunting. 
Far away he heard a great horned 
owl hooting. ''Who — who, who — 
whoo," it said, over and over again. 
Nearby, Screech Owl was crooning to 
his little mate, very softly. They, too, 

were hunters and knew that there was 

no 



HOW OTHERS HUNT 

little use in settling down to work until 
the dew had gathered in the fields and 
made the withered grass luscious enough 
to entice the rabbits and mice into the 
open. All had to have water, and for 
most of the little creatures that gnaw, it 
was safer to sip the dew than to take the 
long trip to Goose Creek. 

Suddenly a weird scream filled the 
woods. It had scarcely ceased when an- 
other pierced the air, this time much 
closer to Red Ben. The fox cowered 
back and waited. Again the scream, 
and then a ghostlike, whitish shadow 
flitting between the trees. 

Barn Owl, strangest of all the 
creatures of the night, was flying to his 
hunting ground. Many a silly ghost 
story has been started by a glimpse of 
him — -innocent old mouse eater — in his 

III 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

moonlight travels through the woods. 
By day he rested in a hollow tree, or hid 
in dense tangles high above the ground. 
Now and then he found a roosting 
place on the rafters of some tumble 
down barn. By night he searched the 
meadows for mice and moles, doing 
great good to the lands of the farmers. 

Red Ben had often seen Barn Owl's 
white form, but never before heard his 
call so near at hand. In the summer he 
had come across two of the old bird's 
youngsters squatting forlornly beside 
the stump of an old hollow tree, which 
had been their home until a woodcutter 
had felled it the day before. 

The fox had come too close to the 
suspicious birds and had nearly been 
caught by the quick blow both aimed 
at him with their long talons. One 

112 



HOW OTHERS HUNT 

reached out so far that he lost his bal- 
ance and toppled over. Struggling vio- 
lently to get on his feet, he clawed his 
brother, by mistake, and received a 
sound whack in punishment. 

Forgetting brotherly love and fear of 
the fox pup, they then flew at each other 
in a fury and had a good fight. At last, 
exhausted, they sat on their tails and 
held hands while hissing defiance at each 
other in a comical way. 

Red Ben was very much interested in 
the strange pair, and made a practice of 
taking a look at them every night. The 
devoted old mother fed them regularly, 
often leaving beside them several more 
mice than their stomachs had room for. 
These, however, they ate during the 
day, swallowing fur, tails, feet and 
everything, but later spitting up in neat 

113 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

balls all the bones and undigestible 
parts. 

At last a day came when they were 
not to be found near the tree. Over- 
head, however, sounded a rasping call. 
Red Ben looked up and saw two monkey 
faces, rimmed in white, looking down at 
him from a high limb. Their wings had 
grown long and they had learned to fly. 
Soon four big barn owls, instead of two, 
would be quartering the meadows in 
moonlit nights. 

The pangs of hunger soon drove Red 
Ben to begin to hunt along Goose Creek. 
In daytime, rows of mud turtles, coiled 
water snakes and greenish black bull 
frogs were usually to be found there on 
floating logs, warming themselves in the 
sunshine. At night, some of these ven- 
tured to come ashore after insects. 

114 







Muskrat was busy pulling up grass" 



HOW OTHERS HUNT 

Picking his way cautiously along the 
water's edge, Red Ben noticed a musk- 
rat swimming in the middle of the slug- 
gish stream. Hoping it would land 
near him, he hid, but the wily rat went 
ashore on the far bank where he was safe 
from the fox, but not from a brown mink 
whose fierce eyes were also watching. 

Mink was a swift swimmer whose 
thick fur shed water quite as well as that 
of Muskrat. He dove into the stream 
as noiselessly as a snake, swam under the 
surface until at a point below Muskrat, 
who just then was busy pulling up grass 
which he expected to carry to the stream 
and wash before eating. 

Red Ben, in his excitement, leaped 
out on a bar of sand where he could see 
the chase more easily. Screech Owl, 
too, having caught a glimpse from a dis- 

115 



. RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

tant cedar, flew to a limb over the 
stream. All the creatures within that 
angle of the creek except poor old Musk- 
rat seemed to know that something was 
going to happen. Even the bats flitted 
about without their usual dips and 
rushes after low flying bugs. 
• Muskrat, with mouth full of grass 
and roots, turned back just as Mink's 
head came above the steep bank. For 
one breathless second the two furry 
creatures looked at each other, then the 
rat plunged headlong for the stream. 
Like a football player he charged down 
the bank, throwing the small but fierce 
Mink head over heels into the water. 
Muskrat dove and vanished so quickly 
among the stems of the spatterdocks and 
golden clubs that Mink was confused, 

and actually lost him. 

ii6 



HOW OTHERS HUNT 

A swirl near Red Ben showed him 
where Muskrat entered the under-water 
burrow in the bank, leading to his home. 
In the clear stream the fox had a 
glimpse of the brown body with fore- 
paws held against its sides, driving it- 
self through the water by great strokes 
of its webbed hind feet. Its long, flat, 
almost hairless tail acted as a rudder to 
guide its course. 

Seeing nothing more of either animal. 
Red Ben trotted on. Ahead was a dead 
tree on which were large, black objects. 
These he knew were turkey buzzards 
which by day soared far and wide over 
the Barrens, searching for any dead 
animals that would afford them a feast. 
Here they gathered in the evening, a 
gruesome, ill smelling assemblage. 

The fox avoided the tree and swung 
117 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

into the old wood path. It was the best 
thing he could have done that night, for 
it brought him face to face with a meaL 
Trotting along quite unconcernedly, his 
attention held by the buzzard tree, he 
was met by an explosion of rage, almost 
under his nose. He leaped wildly, to 
avoid he knew not what. Almost at 
the same moment he recognized the big 
gray tom-cat which had treated him so 
uncivilly when he visited Ben Slown's 
farm. 

His dignity had been badly jarred, 
and he felt angry all over. This 
stealthy, hostile creature, which be- 
longed at the farm, had no right to dis- 
pute his way in the wild Barrens. Be- 
sides which it had a freshly killed wild 
rabbit under its paws. 

As the two eyed each other. Red Ben 
ii8 



HOW OTHERS HUNT 

felt the fur tingling along his spine. 
The alluring scent of the rabbit filled 
his hungry nostrils. He stepped closer 
— yes, the rabbit certainly was a fat one I 
Still nearer he went, always watching 
the furious eyes that glared at him. 
How the cat could growl! Now his 
nose was within a few inches of the rab- 
bit. His eyes dropped for the fraction 
of a second, just to have one good look 
at it, and in that instant the raging cat 
struck with both front paws. 

But Red Ben was not there. He had 
been quick enough to leap away from 
those claws. Back he circled and again 
dodged a furious blow. The hateful 
growl of the cat rose into a high pitched 
shriek of rage. Losing all caution, he 
made a spring after the fox, who neatly 
side stepped it and picked up the rabbit 

119 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

on the run. A yowl followed him, but 
as he looked over his shoulder, he saw 
the cowardly cat actually turn tail and 
dash for home. 

This was the beginning of Red Ben's 
rule over Oak Ridge and Cranberry 
Swamp. Before October ended, every 
animal who lived there had learned not 
to trifle with him. He knew them all 
by that time and respected their rights, 
but woe to the one that tried any mean 
tricks on him. He was growing big and 
strong, and very wonderful looking, in 
his orange-red fur, which, responding to 
the first frosts, was becoming long and 
rich. The most conspicuous thing to be 
seen on the Ridge was Red Ben, but he 
took care that he seldom was seen. 
Nevertheless his fame was growing. 



1 20 



CHAPTER XII 

ben's hundred dollar fox 

BEN SLOWN had a good many 
days of corn husking ahead of him 
that Autumn. Every morning he car- 
ried his gun out to the field, turned 
loose the eager black and white hound 
with instructions to ''sick 'em/' then 
busied himself in the profitable task of 
stripping the long yellow ears. 

The hound would hunt through the 
woods, and, by the manner of his yelp- 
ing, tell Ben Slown what he was finding 
there. A quick short yelp or two meant 
he had scared up a rabbit. An angry, 

121 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

loud baying in one spot meant that Gray 
Squirrel, or Red Squirrel, had been treed 
and was making fun of him from a safe 
height. 

When the hound ran Woodchuck, or 
Muskrat, into a burrow, his baying was 
muffled, on account of his nose being in 
the mouth of the hole. But when he 
rushed full tilt through the woods with 
a musical 'Vu — uh, wu-uh, wu — uh'' at 
regular intervals, that meant fox; and, 
near the Ridge, fox meant Red Ben. 

Ben Slown no sooner would hear that, 
than down he would throw the corn 
bundle and off he would run for his gun, 
which was never left very far from his 
hands. Off, too, would dash Shep and 
the fox terrier, who ordinarily busied 
themselves with digging for mice 
around the corn shocks. 

122 



BEN'S HUNDRED DOLLAR FOX 

In the excitement, Red Ben always 
managed to get away, usually by hunt- 
ing up Gray Fox, or some other member 
of the gray family, whom he had learned 
to find in the Pine Barrens a mile down 
Goose Creek. The hound had discov- 
ered that any other fox was easier to fol- 
low than Red Ben, so he gladly changed 
trails. 

On one occasion, after a long, hard 
run. Red Ben, circling back by a new 
route, came across the scent of a fox en- 
tirely a stranger to him. With his 
usual caution he looked about and 
presently caught sight of a red creature 
like himself, watching him intently. 

For a full minute he and the other 
fox studied each other without moving. 
Not since his mother vanished had Red 
Ben seen a red fox, and never before had 

123 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

he seen an animal quite so unkempt 
looking as this one. The red fur was 
all mangy and torn, the tail almost a 
stick. 

Red Ben, in all the magnificence of 
his perfect coat, seemed like a different 
kind of animal from this wretched little 
she-fox. And yet there was a bright- 
ness of eye, as well as an alertness about 
her which commanded attention. 

The baying of the hound close by 
changed the scene all too quickly. Red 
Ben went on his way in graceful bounds, 
the little she-fox watching him till out 
of sight, then herself vanishing in the 
wood. 

This kind of daily persecution by Ben 

Slown and his hound wore heavily on 

Red Ben. The sleepless days, hard 

runs and constant worry made him unfit 

124 



BEN^S HUNDRED DOLLAR FOX 

for hunting during the night. Often he 
went hungry. He quickly became em- 
bittered and reckless. Instead of run- 
ning after swift rabbits and spending 
hours in digging out mice, he fell into 
the easy habit of catching the fat, stupid 
chickens and ducks that could be picked 
up at any farm yard without his expend- 
ing much energy. 

His cunning in work of this kind 
seemed endless. He learned how to 
catch the guinea hens in the gray light 
of early morning, how to climb over and 
under chicken yard fences and how to 
enter hen houses through windows. 
He became the vexation and terror of 
every poultry man within three or four 
miles of the Ridge. Bounties were 
offered in three villages for his capture. 
One hundred dollars in all hung over 

125 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

his head; and still he somehow managed 
to live on his much loved Ridge^ — the 
only place he knew as home. 

To children Red Ben naturally be- 
came a real hero; stories of his cunning 
took the place of fairy tales^ besides 
which he seemed to have a friendly as 
well as inquisitive feeling towards them 
which led him to follow them about in 
the woods on their winter-green and 
holly picking expeditions, cautiously of 
course, but showing in one so wild an in- 
teresting trustfulness. 

Sometimes he would be glimpsed as 

he watched them from some thicket, far 

enough away to satisfy his shyness; at 

other times his orange colored form 

would slip past as silently as a shadow, 

to be swallowed immediately in the 

tangles all about. So the children, with 

126 



BEN^S HUNDRED DOLLAR FOX 

their sharp eyes, had the thrill of seeing 
him more often than anyone else; and 
of all the hungry woods creatures he 
had first choice of crusts and lunch 
scraps they dropped. 

Every fox is likely sooner or later to 
do something foolish that gets him into 
trouble, but Red Ben's wonderful luck 
seemed unending. He was often seen 
when running ahead of the dogs. Per- 
haps some old farmer would be driving 
home his cows, when into the country 
road ahead would plunge the fox, his 
bright fur and big, bushy tail leaving no 
doubt as to his identity. 

"Ah, there goes a hundred dollars," 

the old man would sigh, as he thought of 

the reward, then he would admiringly 

watch the graceful fox until out of sight 

around the bend in the road, and pray 

127 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

that the dogs might not get him after 
all. 

Red Ben of course jumped into the 
road ahead of the cows so that these big 
footed creatures, which kicked up the 
dust so plentifully as they walked, 
would spoil his trail before the dogs 
would get there. It was one of his ways 
of eluding them. 

Everyone who saw the red fox talked 
about it and about the reward, and 
though to the children he was always 
Red Ben, to the farmers he was now 
Ben's Hundred Dollar Fox. 

''He's the most valuable thing on 
your old farm, Ben," some neighbor 
would tell Farmer Slown. 

''And he won't be there much longer," 
Ben would answer in his usual ugly 

manner. 

128 



BEN'S HUNDRED DOLLAR FOX 

''How's that? Are you going to try 
sticky fly paper next ?'' But Ben would 
stalk off without answer. 

The answer came when five of the vil- 
lage dogs died from some mysterious 
poison for foxes they had picked up in 
the fields. After that people began to 
pass Ben Slown on the road without 
speaking. 



129 



CHAPTER XIII 

RED BEN TRAVELS 

ON the first very chilly night of the 
season, Red Ben, trotting briskly 
along the woods path towards Cranberry 
Swamp, came face to face with Gray 
Fox. According to the law of the 
woods the old fellow had no right to 
hunt on another fox's home ground; but 
what cared he, where the despised red 
fox was concerned "? This time, how- 
ever, he did grow a trifle worried. Red 
Ben was beginning to look very differ- 
ent from the thin, long legged pup he 
used to be. 

130 



RED BEN TRAVELS 

Each slowed down to a cautious walk 
and resolved that the other should get 
out of his way. The result of course 
was that they met, and in an instant 
were locked in furious battle. On their 
hind legs and on the ground, they tus- 
sled and rolled and bit and scratched 
until fur flew. 

Once again Red Ben's training 
helped him. He fought with the speed 
of lightning — the kind of fighting his 
mother had taught him. He tore Gray 
Fox on this side and that, mauled and 
pummeled him, threw him down; and 
when the snarling old enemy tried to get 
away, Red Ben followed with speed that 
was irresistible, nipping, worrying and 
driving him on. There had probably 
never been a more bitter fight in the 
history of the Barrens. 

131 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

When the completely whipped gray 
reached his own range there was not a 
particle of courage left in him. Never 
would he dare to face again the Red Fox 
of Oak Ridge. But Red Ben was not so 
happy as he might have been. As his 
enemy vanished in the woods, he felt 
more than ever before the loneliness of 
his life. 

This feeling surged over him until 
it became unbearable. He wandered 
over to Cranberry Swamp, and finally 
to the very end of his hunting territory, 
where he had seen the mangy little she- 
fox; but this time she was not there, so 
he did not stop. Something drove him 
on, into the land of the unknown in the 
direction of the rising sun, whence the 
faint night breeze was coming, bearing 
innumerable scents. It was then he 

132 




'A turkey buzzard had been circlino; over him' 



RED BEN TRAVELS 

heard, far behind him, probably all the 
way from the Ridge, the bay of a hound. 
He stopped to listen ; sitting there in the 
lonesome Barrens, he picked out, one 
after another, the joy notes of Farmer 
Slown's big brute, following his trail. 
That decided him. There would be no 
turning back. 

Full of bitterness now, he hastened 
on until broad daylight came. For- 
tunately he had caught a few crickets 
and two deer mice on the way. These 
had helped to sustain his strength, but 
he was very tired. For nearly an hour 
a turkey buzzard had been circling over 
him; now close, now far, but always 
within sight. It was like a bad omen. 

Badly as he needed a rest, it was not 
for him to enjoy one that day. Scarcely 
had he found a soft bed in a pepper bush 

133 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

thicket, when once more he heard the 
hound. Evidently the patient dog had 
been unravelling the trail for hours; 
now he was coming close. 

Up jumped Red Ben and once more 
loped off towards the East. He was 
soon skirting farms he had never seen 
before, and crossing cement roads lined 
with prickly hedges, or wire. Behind 
him the noise was growing. Other 
dogs, picked up from the farms, were 
joining in the chase. Each time he 
looked back over the fields he could see 
several of them, running in loose pack 
formation, with Ben Slown's black and 
white hound in the lead. 

Red Ben suddenly realized he was 
getting tired out. A kind of desper- 
ation seized him. He crossed barn 
yards, where the children delightedly 

134 



RED BEN TRAVELS 

shouted at him; dodged down roads in 
plain sight of people in automobiles, 
and in his ignorance of the country, did 
other things which in the old days on the 
Ridge would have seemed impossibly 
reckless. 

Everyone shouted and cheered and 
followed as well as they could, until 
Red Ben lost them in a friendly wood. 
Here he threw himself down, panting as 
never before. His limbs ached all over 
and smarted where he had been bitten 
in the fight with Gray Fox; he felt in- 
deed as if he could never get up. But 
when the dogs came over the meadow in 
plain view, he somehow jumped up once 
more and circled the wood; then he 
found the scent of another fox. 

With new hope he turned into the 
wind and followed it unerringly until 

135 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

he reached long rows of wire pens in 
which were a number of creatures that 
seemed to be foxes, but were black. 
He had stumbled upon a fox ranch, kept 
by a dealer who raised the beautiful 
black ones for their pelts, which he sold. 
Every fox Red Ben saw there was worth 
many hundreds of dollars. 

Scarcely knowing what to do, he fol- 
lowed the outer fence a short distance, 
then slipped to a thicket where he could 
hide and watch what would happen. 

The dogs came soon in a long line, 

five of them, with Ben's big hound still 

in front. They blundered into the first 

line of wire, looked up, and saw the 

foxes running in all directions. At this 

sight, one mighty yell burst from every 

one of them. They leaped around the 

outer enclosure in frantic effcrts to get 

136 



RED BEN TRAVELS 

in. Trails were forgotten now that 
foxes were actually in sight. Indeed 
the one idea of each was to catch a fox 
before the others got him; so they 
jo5tled each other and scrambled and 
fought, with such a din that the ranch 
owner came running out with his gun 
and broke up the party with two sting- 
ing loads of bird shot, one of which pep- 
pered the black and white hound in a 
way he would not soon forget. 

Quiet instantly followed. The 
black foxes were so well protected by 
the double line of fencing that they 
were not in the least hurt, or even much 
scared. They soon slipped out of their 
shelters and basked in the sun, while 
Red Ben in his thicket sprawled out flat 
and slept. His first day of travel had 
been an eventful one. 

137 



CHAPTER XIV 

BLACKIE 

IN the afternoon, soft snow, the first 
that Red Ben had ever seen, fell for 
several hours. He did not fear it, but 
wondered at its whiteness, which soon 
wiped out the green and brown colors 
of his thicket and deadened all the 
woodland scents he was used to. 
Nevertheless, as soon as darkness made 
it safe to move about, he crept out of 
his hiding place and again visited the 
fox ranch. On three sides he found 
thickly planted spruce trees, which 
sheltered the yards, and made them so 
secluded and cozy that the timid ani- 

138 



BLACKIE 

mals could live there almost as happily 
as in the North Woods, whence those 
came which had not been born in cap- 
tivity. 

The whole ranch was enclosed with 
the strong wire which had kept out the 
dogs. Inside this fence were the pens, 
each holding a pair of the wonderful 
silver black foxes. A shed ran along 
their northern side, giving protection 
against rain and the coldest winds. 

Red Ben moved stealthily between 
the snow laden spruce boughs, climbed 
the outside fence with the ease of a cat, 
and approached the first pen. Here 
stood watching him a beautiful fox, jet 
black to the tip of her tail, which was 
pure white. Blackie seemed mightily 
interested in Red Ben. She even stuck 
her dainty black nose through the wire 

139 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

for him to touch, which he did rather 
shyly. 

This friendliness was such a new 
thing to him, used as he was to the in- 
tensely suspicious, shy creatures of the 
woods, that it thrilled his every nerve. 
He scarcely looked at the other foxes, 
preferring to romp about Blackie's pen 
in a spirited game, thought out on the 
spur of the m.oment, in which they had 
races and tag, in spite of the wire be- 
tween. 

When the fun was at its height there 
was a sudden rush : Red Ben found him- 
self facing, instead of gentle Blackie, a 
tall, lean, black fox, whose jealous snarl 
at once showed him to be a rival. 

Only the fence between prevented a 

furious fight. As it was, indeed, they 

tore at each other through the wire. Red 

140 




Coiirft'sy I-l/ack Fox Magazine 

They tore at each other throuo;h the wire' 



BLACKIE 

Ben charging against it again and again 
in vain attempt to break through. 
There was an over-hang of wire at the 
top which stopped him from climbing 
over, and wire laid along the ground in a 
way to make digging-under nearly im- 
possible, so he, a creature of the wild, 
could not get in. 

The black rival meanwhile did all he 
could to tease and anger him; but worst 
of all was the way he bossed and mal- 
treated poor Blackie, who seemed to live 
in constant fear. 

Red Ben was fairly raging. He felt 
as he had long ago, when Gray Fox 
treated his mother so badly. Somehow 
he would get in! But whenever he 
tried to climb up the wire, the other fox 
bit his toes cruelly and gloated over his 
helpless fury. 

141 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

It was after one of these climbs that 
he found a ladder leaning against the 
shed. He had never before seen one, 
but was clever enough to guess that it 
might be climbed. One foot at a time, 
his big tail helping to balance him, he 
moved up the slippery rungs. Almost 
at the top he lost his footing and fell 
all the way down with a thud, but, none 
the worse for this, he tried again, and 
actually reached the roof. 

Now, at last, he could look down on 
Blackie and know that one jump would 
bring him to her side, where he could 
give the lean, black bully the thrashing 
he deserved. 

Proudly he stood there, while all the 

foxes in the row of pens watched and 

waited. Something was warning him 

not to leap. If he did, could he get out 

142 



BLACKIE 

again? Was not this a kind of trap? 

Although Blackie was coaxing him, 
his caution held him back. He climbed 
down the same way he had come up 
and trotted away, not however without 
first taking a last jolly romp with 
Blackie and giving a good growl of 
warning to her disagreeable, black 
companion. He had three mice for 
supper. They had been overtaken by 
the snow away from home, and were 
rushing back in long leaps when he 
found them. As soon as dawn came he 
was again cozily hidden in the thicket. 

Later in the morning he noticed ex- 
citement among the foxes and saw a boy 
wheeling a barrow laden with things 
which he put in the pens. He saw that 
this boy somehow entered without 
climbing over the wire. 

143 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

Red Ben was exceedingly interested 
in this, so interested that he did not note 
how carefully the boy walked around 
Blackie's pen, looking at the tracks in 
the snow, nor how long a time he spent 
fixing something in the pen. Red Ben, 
indeed, had not yet learned that snow 
holds footprints and tells the story of 
the night travels of every creature that 
touches it. How, therefore, could he 
guess that everything about his visit was 
plain to this wide awake boy, who, 
thrilled by the idea of a big, wild fox 
being near, was plotting to catch him"? 

The sun melted very little of the 

snow, so when he started out that night, 

the ground was still white and cold. 

He hurried to Blackie, who frisked 

about in great excitement at seeing him 

again. Eagerly he tried the spot where 

144 



BLACKIE 

the boy had entered with food and 
water, but of course was stopped by the 
peg on the door. Blocked in that hope, 
he turned to the ladder, and soon was 
once more on the shed roof, looking 
down at Blackie's companion, who was 
in his usual disagreeable, jealous mood. 

It was then that he noticed, for the 
first time, a ladder leading from the 
roof into the pen — a ladder very much 
like the one he had just climbed. He 
went towards it cautiously. It had not 
been there the night before. There was 
also about it the scent of the boy, but 
no more noticeably than on other things, 
such as the gate. Still, he feared it. 

Perhaps he would have left the place 
without venturing to set foot on it, if 
at that moment Blackie had not given 
a shrill whine of fear. She was crouch- 

145 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

ing in a corner of the pen with the black 
fox standing menacingly before her. 

Down the ladder sprang Red Ben, his 
heart fairly afire. Before the snarling 
black knew what had happened, he was 
rolling in a whirlwind of snow, with 
jaws like iron closing on his furry neck. 
His snarl suddenly changed into a 
whine of abject fear; then Red Ben let 
him up. 

However, the black one was treacher- 
ous. He sneaked around the pen, and 
when Red Ben was looking with wild 
eyes at the ladder which had suddenly 
fallen, rushed up and caught him in the 
flank. Down went Red Ben, but so 
quickly that the other was also thrown 
off his feet. 

How they fought, there in the dark, 

on the trampled snow ! How fur flew I 

146 



BLACKIE 

Little tufts of it dotted the yard ; black 
tufts they were, worth many dollars 
apiece. But what cared Pted Ben^ — as 
soon as the ladder fell he knew he had 
been trapped — he, who had laughed at 
all the traps on Oak Ridge. Bitterly 
he fought until the black one had more 
than enough and cowered like a scared 
rat in the farthest corner of the shed. 
Then Red Ben let loose his muscles in 
the wildest leaps and the most frantic 
rushes of his life. Madly he ran 
around and around the enclosure, or up 
the quivering wire. 

Blackie could not be made to under- 
stand what was the matter. She was a 
ranch bred fox ; this was her home. But 
to Red Ben, reared in the wild tangles 
of the Ridge and Swamp, freedom 
meant everything. He would have it ! 

147 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

In the morning he was still climbing 
or digging, still pushing and pulling at 
the door, or tearing up and down the 
yard. Even the coming of the de- 
lighted boy did not calm him for an in- 
stant. With red fur standing on end, 
eyes flashing, sharp teeth bared as he 
panted from exertion, he was the wild- 
est looking creature seen on the ranch 
for many a day. 

Finally he dropped to the ground, 
exhausted, but not discouraged. 
Blackie came timidly to him then and 
licked his bruised and torn feet, and the 
bites on his ears which, without her care 
in taking out the poison, might have 
turned into angry sores. 

With her so close. Red Ben seemed 

to forget the wire that held him in ; but 

the instant he heard a footstep ap- 

148 



BLACKIE 

proaching, all his fears awoke and he 
was once more the untamed, splendidly 
active creature so admired by the boy. 

In the afternoon, the boy's father, 
who owned the ranch, came home from 
a long trip he had made the day before. 
After seeing his family, his first thought 
was of the valuable foxes, so the boy, 
hoping to give him a pleasant surprise, 
said nothing about having trapped a 
new fox, but eagerly led him to the 
pens. 

As these two came through the spruce 
trees, Red Ben flattened himself against 
the ground under the shed, hoping to 
be passed unseen. But the man 
noticed the tufts of fur lying about the 
pen and strode over there. 

''Why, what's all this, son?'' he asked. 

''Have Blackie and her friend had a dis- 

149 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

agreement? This looks pretty bad. 
They are the best pair of all. If any- 
thing happened to one of them, I don't 
know what I should do." 

At this the boy began to feel mighty 
uncomfortable. All the joy of the sur- 
prise was suddenly gone. He hung 
back, fearful of what his father would 
say when he found out what really had 
happened. 

''This is awful I'^ his father went on. 
''Something has gone wrong. What 
could it be?'' And then, as if in answer 
to the question, Red Ben sprang up in 
all his wildness and dashed up the wire 
like a cat, only to be thrown down by the 
netting at the top. 

The old rancher stepped back in a 

dazed way, then with sudden suspicion, 

looked at his son. He read part of the 

150 



BLACKIE 

story in the poor boy's unhappy face, 
and drew out the rest with a few ques- 
tions. 

He was a sensible father. He 
gulped down all his disappointment 
about the injury to one of his favorites, 
gave the boy a hearty slap on the 
shoulder, just to show it was all right, 
and congratulated him on his cleverness 
in outwitting a fox. 

''You were mighty smart to cut the 
three bottom rungs off that ladder to 
keep the blacks from climbing out be- 
fore the other fox knocked the ladder 
down. Suppose you see, now, whether 
you can set a trap in the pen that will 
catch that big, red scalawag and not the 
others. His fur is wonderful, the long- 
est I ever saw. We'll make him into a 
fine rug for the parlor." With that he 

151 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

Strode off without noticing what a woe- 
ful glance the boy gave the ''fine rug," 
so wonderfully alive at that moment. 



152 



CHAPTER XV 

FREEDOM IS SWEET 

RED BEN'S doom seemed sealed. 
Even if he scorned the box trap 
set for him by the dutiful boy, he was 
still in the rancher's power. He knew 
all about box traps. Instead of get- 
ting caught himself, he drove Blackie's 
companion into it and every now and 
then looked in through a crack to see 
how the black fellow was enjoying the 
place. Shut in there, the other fox 
could growl and be as nasty as he chose. 
After that, Red Ben once more began 
his attacks on the wire. He never lost 

153 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

hope of getting away. The gate, too, 
he worked over nearly half the night. 
It shook when he struck it. It seemed 
the weakest part of the pen. He 
pawed its edges, climbed up its sides, 
and then all at once felt it give. He 
had sawed the peg until it moved back. 
The gate swung open, he was free ! 

Cautiously he slipped out and started 
for the spruce trees, then stopped sud- 
denly and looked back. Blackie was 
not following. She stood on the 
threshold of the pen looking after him. 
Instantly he turned back and began to 
coax her. He would run towards the 
thicket, and then back again. He 
pulled at her velvety ears and played in 
front of her. Still she would not ven- 
ture out. 

At last, however, she very carefully 
154 




Courtesy Black Fo.v Magazine 

She stood on the threshold of the pen" 



FREEDOM IS SWEET 

took a few steps, and then a few more. 
With Red Ben beside her, almost shov- 
ing her along, she came to the tall out- 
side wire, under which a hole was soon 
dug. Once past this she had the whole 
country before her, the Pine Barrens, 
the swamps, everything that delighted 
Red Ben. But the farther they went 
from the ranch, the more nervous she be- 
came. Twice she started back, only to 
be coaxed forward again by her ever 
faithful companion. Every bush and 
tree was something new to her, every 
shadow and strange scent a cause of 
fear. In all her life she had never gone 
farther than around and around her 
little pen, and now she wanted to go 
around and around in the same way, in- 
stead of straight ahead with Red Ben. 
A dog barked from a nearby farm 
155 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

house. Blackie instantly stopped. 
The dog barked again; the wind had 
brought to him the scent of the foxes. 
He was coming nearer to investigate. 
Red Ben did not move. He knew it 
was a small dog he had seen several 
times from a distance. Again the bark, 
very near and very loud. 

Blackie crouched for an instant, then 
turned. Red Ben could not stop her. 
She was panic stricken in this strange 
new place. Over the snow she sped, 
back to the pen and to her favorite bed 
in the old shed. This was home to her. 
Here she felt safe. Red Ben could 
love his woods, but she was a ranch bred 
fox. 

Red Ben stood at the entrance of the 
pen and waited, but she would not 
move. He wandered out to the spruce 

156 



FREEDOM IS SWEET 

trees and called, but she did not come. 
Out in the woods he called again. 
Mournfully the woods echoed it. 
''Yap, Yarrrrrr,— Yap, Yarrrrrr." 
There was no answer. 

Into the woods he wandered, scarcely 
knowing where. On and on in the 
steady lope he always used when get- 
ting away from his enemies. The 
rancher could come now and fuss and 
fume all he wante?d to. He would find 
a fox in his trap all right, but not the 
Red Fox of Oak Ridge. 

And Blackie? Long after Red Ben 
had vanished, she became uneasy. Per- 
haps he would not return. She once 
more stood on the threshold of the pen, 
looking out at the woods where she had 
last seen him. Poor, silly Blackie! 
For once in her life she too felt lonely. 

157 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

Raising her head she barked, and then 
barked again, until her lonesomeness af- 
fected the other foxes in the nearby 
pens and they too barked. It was a 
wonderful chorus, a goodby to the big, 
wild fox. 

Many miles from the ranch. Red Ben 
lay down to rest and lick his wire torn 
feet. He was in a small swamp, where 
a stream of brownish water flowed be- 
tween soft masses of sphagnum moss. 
The first signs of dawn were in the sky. 
Hardly had he made himself comfort- 
able when a swishing of wings made 
him look up in time to see a flock 
of black ducks going over. They 
swerved, threw out their feet, and with 
a lot of splashing settled in a shallow 
pool nearby. 

New strength seemed to shoot into 
158 



FREEDOM IS SWEET 

Red Ben's tired limbs. He was 
almost famished, and here was meat. 
Stealthily he slipped along the ground 
towards the water, guided by the soft 
quacks of the drakes, which were steer- 
ing the flock carefully nearer to the 
bank. There, more water weeds and 
snails could be found. 

Soon Red Ben could see the dark 
forms and hear the water being filtered 
through the fringes of their bills as they 
sifted out all that was eatable. The 
feeding was good; they were having a 
fine time. 

Nearer to shore they came, the wary 
drakes examining its edges and seeing 
nothing to alarm them. One climbed 
up on the bare mud near some bushes. 
He flapped his wings and then began 
to oil his feathers. First he rubbed his 

159 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

bill on the oil that every duck has at the 
point on his back where the tail feathers 
begin ; then he rubbed his oily bill over 
his feathers. This kept water from 
soaking them and made him able to 
swim or dive a long time without get- 
ting his feathers wet. Another duck 
joined him and began to arrange its 
feathers in like manner. 

Suddenly a red streak shot out of the 
bushes. The first duck saw it and, with 
a startled quack, leaped into the air; but 
the second duck, being behind the other, 
did not see it in time. It leaped, but 
the streak leaped too and brought 
it down. Amid wild quacking and 
splashing as the flock flew up, Red Ben 
proudly carried off the first real meal he 
had tasted for two days. 

After that he scraped away the snow 

i6o 



FREEDOM IS SWEET 

from the leaves in a clump of laurel and, 
with nose buried in his fur and cov- 
ered by his warm, bushy tail, slept 
through the long day. Downy wood- 
peckers hammered the old limbs over- 
head, hawks screeched, and quail, run- 
ning past to get a drink at the stream, 
rustled the leaves where the snow was 
thin; but still Red Ben slept on. 

All the terrors of his day in the pen 
were wiped out by that sleep. Even 
beautiful Blackie, whom he had played 
with and loved, became fainter in his 
memory, like part of a wonderful 
dream. 



i6i 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE ROAD TO THE SEA 

TOWARDS evening clouds began 
to gather; then a gentle wind 
from the South brought the first signs 
of thawing weather. Later a warm 
rain drenched the woods, washing away 
the snow and leaving the swamps 
cloaked in vapor. 

This was the kind of winter weather 
the woodsfolk preferred to any other. 
Nearly all of them came out. Even the 
raccoons and the skunks, who sleep in 
cold weather no matter how long it 
lasts, crept forth to have a good hunt 

before the next cold spell began. 

162 




' Two coons, who were having a loud altercation' ' 



THE ROAD TO THE SEA 

They had never before seen Red Ben, 
so each eyed him very carefully and left 
plenty of room between. As usual, the 
coons followed the water, the possums 
wandered along the edges of the swamp, 
and the skunks roamed the open places. 
None of them seemed sociable. The 
only ones Red Ben saw together were 
two coons who were having a loud alter- 
cation in the top of a hollow hickory. 
Each wanted the hollow entirely for 
himself, but neither could throw the 
other out of the tree. 

In the stream a mink suddenly ap- 
peared. He had a frog in his jaws 
which he carried ashore and left on a 
tussock of grass. Returning to the 
water he dove, searched the muddy 
bottom, found another frog that was 
hibernating there, and laid it on the tus- 

163 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

sock beside its fellow. When he had 
collected four fat ones he finished his 
meal, leaving what he did not need, for 
other less expert hunters, like the 
possum, to find, if they could. 

A larger animal than the mink also 
came swimming down the stream; it had 
a flatter head and lighter color. Red 
Ben, who was sitting on a high part of 
the bank watching all that was going 
on, saw at once that this was a creature 
not to be found in Goose Creek and 
Cranberry Swamp. It was an otter, on 
its way to winter quarters farther down 
the stream. Like most of the other 
woodsfolk, it had to find a snug, safe 
hole to live in during the many cold 
days ahead. 

Even the big owls always sought 

holes when the leaves fell from the trees 

164 



THE ROAD TO THE SEA 

and the North Wind began to moan in 
the woods. They hunted out hollows 
in trees; so did the animals that could 
climb; but the others, the mink, the 
skunk, the muskrat and the weasel, slept 
in holes in the ground. These they 
dug themselves, if they had to; but gen- 
erally it was possible for them to find 
old holes that would do very well. 
They were very lazy about that kind of 
thing, far different from animals like the 
squirrels, which built such snug nests 
for themselves in summer as well as in 
winter. 

Red Ben found a possum carrying his 
bed along with him. Instead of hold- 
ing the grass in his mouth as a squirrel 
would, he wrapped his queer tail around 
a big pile of it. Whenever he came 
across some more material that was suit- 

165 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

able, he stopped, picked it up with a 
front foot and, reaching under his body, 
tucked it also into the bundle. The 
tail was curved down and then under his 
Q 6^ body, so the ends of the 
Vgg^cao grass stuck out on each 
eAs/^ side, making him look, 

^ from the rear, like a lit- 

tle haystack wandering 
^^0 about. 
« \^^»o It was not difficult to 



f^^^ get food. There were 

still acorns under the 

Possum Tracks , i r • i i 

oaks and iruit under the 
wild apple and persimmon trees. Red 
Ben, who of course knew nothing of this 
part of the country, found the trees by 
following the trails of the creatures that 
lived in the neighborhood. He looked 

for wild ducks as he later travelled down 

i66 



THE ROAD TO THE SEA 

the edge of the stream, but found them 
too wild to be caught. The farther he 
went the more ducks he saw. The 
stream was joining other streams and 
getting wider and wider, until suddenly 
it came out of the woods and wound 
through a flat stretch of grass land. 

There was now a different scent in 
Red Ben's nostrils, a dull roar always 
in his ears. He had reached the salt 
marshes, close to the ocean; just beyond 
them were the waves of the Atlantic 
hurling themselves on the hard beach of 
sand. Here were coon tracks in all di- 
rections, but no signs of other woods 
animals. 

Red Ben trotted cautiously to the big 

sand dunes that edged the beach. 

Beyond them was the roar he had heard 

all the way from the woods. Climb- 

167 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

ing the soft sand, he looked over the 
top of the dunes and saw before him 
the Ocean, stretching as far as his eye 
could travel. For a long while he stood 
there watching the waves. Then he 
saw a fox, a gray, trotting along the 
beach. It was not afraid; why should 
he be cautious? 

Down the dune he loped and over the 
hard, shell studded beach, to the very 
edge of the water. The gray walked 
forward to meet him, saw he was a 
stranger and at once put on all the 
hostile airs he could. 

Red Ben, however, was not surprised. 
By this time he knew a good deal about 
gray foxes. He walked around the 
other, eyeing him sharply, but giving 
him every chance to attack if he wanted 
to. The gray was fooleri With a 

i6e 



THE ROAD TO THE SEA 

snarl he leaped at the apparently stupid 
red, only to be met by a blaze of teeth. 
The fight was over in a moment. The 
gray did not stop running until he had 
the big sand dunes between him and 
that red whirlwind. 

Red Ben found crabs, fish, snails and 
clams washed up on the beach. He had 
never seen so much food. Some he ate, 
and some he carried to the dunes and 
buried for future use. He did not 
know that a new supply was washed 
in by every tide. Soon, however, he 
gave up the idea of burying all the fish 
he found; there were hundreds of them! 
Here indeed was the place in which to 
live and hunt — no traps, no hounds, no 
hunger. Red Ben sprang into the air 
in pure joy and raced down the beach 

and back again, and in and out of the 

169 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

dunes, and then off to the woods to find 
a resting place for the day. 

All through January and the first 
weeks of cold February he lived by the 
sea. Then one warm night the lone- 
liness came upon him again. The 
woods were wet and sweet, the ground 
was thawing; Spring seemed in the air. 
Instead of going to the beach, he 
wandered about the woods and then 
started West, towards the Pine Barrens. 
Often he stopped, but always trotted on 
again; something was calling him. 
Was it the sunny Ridge, so far from the 
angry winds and mists of the ocean "? 
Red Ben did not know, but each hour 
brought him nearer. 

With day came a change in the air. 

Snow began to fall, very softly, but very 

thick. Nearly blinded, Red Ben 

170 



THE ROAD TO THE SEA 

curled up under a laurel bush and 
waited, while inch by inch the flakes 
rose on the ground around him. No 
creature was stirring. There was some- 
thing so determined in the way the snow 
fell that they were cowed and glad to 
hide in their snug beds. All night, too, 
it snowed, and all the next day. Red 
Ben lay now in a room of snow; on all 
sides and on top, except where his 
breath had thawed a hole, was the white 
blanket. He was completely snowed 
in. 



171 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE OTHER FOX 

ON the second night the snow 
stopped falling, but the icy 
northwest wind came in shrieking 
blasts, whirling the flakes in every di- 
rection. It was a terrible time for any 
creature without a snug home. 

Red Ben's snow covering was 
whipped away; in the height of the 
storm he floundered through the drifts 
until glad to stop behind a pile of brush 
which offered some shelter. Here he 
came across a mink, also snow bound 

and also half famished. There was an 

172 



THE OTHER FOX 

ominous glitter in the old mink's eye. 
Hunger was making him dangerous. 
Red Ben crouched warily at the edge of 
the brush. The mink curled up inside 
it, fairly bristling with bad temper. 
Each hungrily watched the other. If 
the storm kept up there would be a cruel 
fight, and one of them might never be 
seen again. 

They were still watching each other 
when morning came. Both had made 
short trips into the deep snow, only to 
return disheartened. But the sun at 
last appeared and turned the world into 
a shimmering wonderland. It warmed 
the air and melted the top of the snow 
so that it would pack under the feet of 
the small woods creatures. The squir- 
rels came out of their holes in the hollow 
oaks and rushed to the nearest places in 

173 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

which they remembered having hidden 
nuts. Crows cawed and walked along 
the edges of the streams where the 
water had melted the snow. Wherever 
tall weeds grew, there was great feast- 
ing. Flocks of little j uncos and chick- 
adees were picking the seeds out of the 
dry tops. 

The sour old mink slipped out of the 
brush pile, gave Red Ben a last wicked 
look, then went bounding away. Now 
that the snow was melting and heavy, 
instead of powdery as at first, his wide 
spreading toes kept him from sinking 
out of sight. 

Red Ben was much heavier and could 
not spread his toes. He therefore sank 
up to his middle at every step. The 
squirrels laughed and barked at him 
from safe perches; the little birds flew 

174 



THE OTHER FOX 

away ahead of him; the crows set up a 
great racket and swooped at his head 
as if to pick out his eyes; but still he 
kept on, hunting for something to eat. 
Following the bed of the nearest stream, 
he escaped some of the deepest snow 
and went a long distance before night. 
Never before had he travelled so long 
in daylight, but never had he been so 
hungry, nor found so little to eat. 

The snow froze as soon as the sun 
sank. Where it had been thawed on 
top, a hard crust quickly formed. On 
this, Red Ben could walk cautiously, 
but not run, because it broke with him 
so easily. Again and again he saw rab- 
bits and tried to catch them, only to find 
himself floundering in the snow at the 
first big jump. After losing one par- 
ticularly fat one, and seeing its white 

175 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

tail go bobbing away, he suddenly 
noticed that something was following 
his own trail. There were shadows 
that slunk about wherever he went. 

Quickly slipping behind a snow cov- 
ered holly bush, Red Ben waited. A 
gray form, and then another, came 
cautiously along, nosing his tracks and 
looking ahead : a gray fox and his mate. 
Red Ben sprang up, and the pair floun- 
dered back in a panic. But every time 
he looked around again, they were still 
following him, watching his every move 
with a hungry gleam in their eyes such 
as was in those of the old mink, such as, 
indeed, was now also coming into his 
own eyes. Were they hoping he would 
catch some creature which they could 
share in eating, or were they hoping to 

eat him when his strength gave out and 

176 



THE OTHER FOX 

he dropped helpless in the treacherous 
snow? 

When hunter grimly hunts hunter in 
the woods, it is indeed a time of starva- 
tion. Not for years had there been 
such a snow in the Pine Barrens. Red 
Ben longed for the country he had 
learned to know so well, the Ridge, 
Cranberry Swamp and the edge of Ben 
Slown's farm lands. There he would 
know just where to dig for mice under 
the snow, or to hunt for frozen apples. 
He stopped every now and then to rest 
and to flash his keen, white teeth at the 
two grays. How he would punish 
them when the show went away! 

Suddenly he found that the grays 

were slinking nearer. They were 

lighter than he and could walk much 

more easily on the snow crust. When 

177 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

he growled, they growled back. Their 
sharp teeth and hungry eyes showed 
plainly, when they were close. It was 
two against one, and Red Ben was no 
longer the tireless, iron muscled fox 
which had so often outrun the hounds. 
His limbs ached, his empty stomach 
burned his very heart, his tail dragged 
through the snow. And yet he was as 
proud as ever. He threw up his head 
and stood his full height. The grays 
shrank back, just a few feet. 

They let him plunge further into the 
woods; their time would come, they 
could wait. They had not travelled a 
long distance and were not yet weak- 
ening from the hunger. 

Red Ben felt the ground slope 
sharply; suddenly he slipped headlong 
into the bed of a stream. He knew the 

178 



THE OTHER FOX 

grays would come now. If he would 
only get up quickly enough to meet 
them both! With a great struggle he 
threw off the masses of loose snow and 
stood with feet wide apart, waiting. 
Every hair stood on end, his big tail 
waved menacingly, he was for the 
moment as formidable and wonderful 
as ever. 

The grays stood cautiously watching. 
Why did they not give him a chance to 
fight? He would show them! But it 
was not he they were watching. A 
shadow was stealing along the stream 
bed — a shadow like Red Ben's. He 
saw it and whirled around. The 
shadow stopped. Facing him, at a 
little distance, stood a splendid red fox. 

Red Ben noted the perfect form, rich 
fur and fresh look of this newxomer. 

179 



RED BEN, THE FQX OF OAK RIDGE 

Three against one it would be now! 
The grays waited expectantly. Red 
Ben and the new fox looked at each 
other. None moved. 

The wind sighed in the pines over- 
head and beat brittle oak twigs against 
each other. The grays circled suspi- 
ciously; something was wrong. Red 
Ben watched them out of the corners of 
his eyes. The wind had brought to him 
clearly the scent of the red fox. His 
nose was telling him more truly than his 
eyes that this beautiful creature was the 
same as the mangy, wretched little red 
fox he had once seen in the Barrens 
months before, when Ben Slown's 
hound had driven him some distance 
from the Ridge. 

He walked slowly towards her. 

There was no unfriendly snarl at his ap- 

i8o 



THE OTHER FOX 

proach. Her eyes sparkled; she frisked 
up to him, shyly, indeed, but quite as if 
he were an old friend who had come 
back after a long journey. She had not 
forgotten him. And Red Ben? His 
big heart began to pound against his 
ribs. Long ago, in his loneliness, he 
had looked for her — one of his own kind 
— a red fox like his mother. 

He looked around for the two grays; 
the cowards had already gone, taking 
for granted that the newcomer was Red 
Ben's mate. Would she be his mate? 
How pleasantly different the bleak 
woods seemed all of a sudden as these 
two wandered away together to food 
stores the pretty she-fox had collected 
in times of plenty, just as Red Ben had 
collected and hidden the first fish he had 
found on the beach. First he would 

i8i 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

follow her, then she would follow him, 
and so they broke a new path into the 
silent woods. 



182 



CHAPTER XVIII 

HOME AGAIN 

THE great snow stayed in the 
woods for weeks. All that time 
and longer Red Ben and his new 
found comrade kept near the stream 
where they had met. She knew no 
other home land, and he cared only to 
be where she was. On moonlight 
nights they went hunting together, then 
hurried back to romp and play like two 
big cubs. Red Ben seemed suddenly 
young again, carefree, happy beyond 
words. 

When April brought the first flowers 
183 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

and the hum of bees, when the summer 

birds began to fill the woods, and all 

the little animals to go about with the 

Spring joy in their hearts, two and two, 

wherever they were seen. Red Ben and 

his little mate started on a journey — a 

long night's journey^ — to Oak Ridge. 

Again the longing for home was tugging 

at Red Ben. Once started, he could 

hardly stop an instant to rest. 

Just as the sun rose they crossed the 

log over Goose Creek, trotted up the old 

woods path and looked from the Ridge 

over Ben Slown's broad fields, lying so 

peacefully under the morning mist. 

Jim Crow's ''caw — caw — caw," — all's 

well — echoed through the woods quite 

in the old way. White Stripe, too, was 

lumbering along the path just as he had 

when Red Ben first saw him and nearly 

184 




' Holding: to a limb with all four feet' 



HOME AGAIN 

got into troub]-^. Bun, the big farm 
rabbit, passed ahead of the old skunk, 
and far down the Ridge, Red Ben saw 
a possum cautiously shuffling along. 

There was something familiar about 
the possum. Red Ben watched for a 
moment, then playfully pranced to meet 
him. It was the little possum, now 
grown very big and fat, who had been 
so frightened when Red Ben tried to 
play with him. And now, too, he al- 
most went over backwards with fright 
and scuttled up the first tree he could 
find, holding to a limb with all four feet 
as if his life depended on it. Poor, 
scared, little possum! 

Red Ben and his mate did not stop 
there; they were hunting something 
very important, a snug, safe den. 
They found just what they wanted in 

185 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

a tumbled down old mill on Goose 
Creek. Parts of the walls still stood, 
but enough big stones had fallen to 
make a great pile of rock, under which 
a burrow was run without much dig- 
ging. On the top of one of the walls 
they could lie in the pleasant sun and 
look down at the water rushing by, and 
at the fish coming up the creek to spawn 
in the shallows, where the young ones, 
when they hatched, would be safe. 
First came the long nosed, slim pike, 
then the fat suckers and last of all the 
silver sided herring, hundreds of them, 
fresh from the ocean. 

Here four little fox pups were born — 
Red Ben's children. They looked like 
him, and like him they were strong and 
wise and merry. With their parents 

keeping guard on the top of the old 

1 86 



HOME AGAIN 

wall, they could play all through the 
long days. Many were the romps they 
had together, but none so exciting as 
those in which Red Ben joined; then 
all four would pile on top of him and 
bury their little noses in his soft fur try- 
ing to hold him down; but somehow 
he would suddenly roll them all off and 
go dashing about the old mill with all of 
them close at his heels, yelping with de- 
light. 

Care free days were these: indeed, a 
change had come over the Ridge. Red 
Ben had noticed it at once. There were 
no gun shots, no hounds, no grim signs 
of Ben Slown's work. The farmer had 
moved away, disgusted with the place 
and with his neighbors. His poison 
baits and traps, set for Red Ben, his big 
brute of a hound, all had gotten him 

187 



RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE 

into trouble with the villagers. The 
foxes had won, Ben Slown had to move. 

The man who bought the farm had 
no use for a gun. He let the fence 
rows grow up with weeds and berries for 
the birds, so that his corn and fruit 
would not be disturbed by them. He 
let the woodchucks and the children of 
Bun feed at will in his meadows, and 
grow so plentiful that no fox would 
ever need a chicken for a meal. 

Once in a while — very seldom — he 
would steal into the woods, come, up 
wind, towards the old mill and cau- 
tiously peep at the little red foxes. 
Only Red Ben saw him, and Red Ben 
seemed to understand. He never gave 
an alarm to stop their play. 

Year after year Red Ben, with his 
faithful, pretty mate, raised little red 



HOME AGAIN 

foxes in the old mill. Year after year 
he hunted on the Ridge and on clear 
nights barked his defiance to any and all 
the gray foxes of the Barrens. ''Yap, 
yap, yrrrrrr/' over the farmlands it 
would echo, and all the people who 
heard it would stop their work, or read- 
ing, for an instant to say to each other 
excitedly, ''Listen! The Fox of Oak 
Ridge!" 



THE END 



189 



UBRARY OF CONGRESS 




0DDn7E7fiaT 



